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The  Junior  High  School 

Its  Feasibility  in  the 
Catholic  Educational  System 

Dissertation 


Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  of 

the  Catholic  University  of  America 

in  partial  fulfilment  of  the  requirements  for  the 


DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 


REV.  JOSEPH  E.  HAMILL 
Diocese  of  Indianapolis 


Washington,  D.  C.t  1922 


«• 


The  Junior  High  School 

Its  Feasibility  in  the 
Catholic  Educational  System 


Dissertation 


Submitted  to  the  Faculty  of  Philosophy  of 

the  Catholic  University  of  America 

in  partial  fulfilment  of  the  requirements  for  the 


DEGREE  OF  DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY 


BY 


REV.  JOSEPH  E.  HAMILL 
Diocese  of  Indianapolis 


Washington,  D.  C,  1922 


V 


Copyright,  1922,  by  Joseph  E.  Hamill 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

PREFACE    i 

Chapter  I      Origin  of  the  Junior  High  School 1 

Chapter  II    Purposes  of  the  Junior  High  School 17 

Chapter  III  What  is  a  Junior  High  School  34 

Chapter  IV   Results  in  Junior  High  Schools 57 

Chapter  V     The  Junior  High  School  in  the  Catholic  School  System  75 

Conclusion    97 

Bibliography    99 


478680 


PREFACE 

The  widespread  and  thorough  consideration  given  to 
every  phase  of  the  junior  high  school  during  the  past 
thirty  years  is  evidence  of  its  importance.  The  most 
eminent  educators  of  the  country  have  studied  the  move- 
ment and  written  on  it.  Practically  every  educational 
association  in  the  country  has  devoted  much  time  to  it 
in  its  annual  meeting.  Boards  of  Education,  superin- 
tendents of  school  systems,  the  members  of  various 
teacher  organizations  have  become  interested  in  it.  A 
rather  extensive  junior  high  school  literature  has  devel- 
oped and  attempts  have  been  made  by  a  large  number 
of  school  systems  to  reorganize  in  conformity  with  the 
theory. 

There  are  many  different  viewpoints  from  which  this 
institution  can  be  treated.  The  psychological  aspect 
presents  many  unsolved  problems.  Many  philosophical 
questions  in  respect  to  the  junior  high  school  remain  to 
be  settled.  The  advantages  and  disadvantages  have  not 
been  fully  measured.  Numerous  administrative  prob- 
lems, such  as  securing  or  preparing  qualified  teachers, 
determining  methods  of  teaching,  reorganizing  the  cur- 
riculum, deciding  the  length  of  the  recitation  period,  of 
the  school  day  and  of  the  school  year,  etc.,  etc.,  must  be 
further  studied  and  much  experimentation  done  before 
a  solution  of  the  difficulties  involved  can  be  reached. 

The  discussions  of  Catholic  educators  have  been 
confined  for  the  most  part  to  a  general  examination  of 
the  theory,  to  some  particular  defects  of  the  traditional 
system,  e.  g.,  retardation,  elimination  and  reorganiza- 
tion of  the  elementary  curriculum.  No  attempt  has  been 
made  to  introduce  the  junior  high  school  into  the  Catholic 
system.  The  purpose  of  this  dissertation  is  to  offer  a 
general  plan  whereby  this  institution  might  be  made  a 


part  of  the  Catholic  system.  With  this  end  in  view  an 
outline  of  the  history  of  the  movement  is  presented  in 
the  first  chapter.  Its  aims  are  discussed  in  the  second. 
In  the  third  various  views  concerning  the  meaning  of 
the  term,  junior  high  school,  are  considered.  Some  of 
the  results  obtained  in  junior  high  schools  in  the  State 
system  are  presented  in  the  fourth.  In  the  fifth  and  last 
chapter  the  purposes  of  the  junior  high  school  are  briefly 
discussed  in  relation  to  the  aims  of  Catholic  education 
and  a  plan  suggested  for  its  establishment  in  the  Catholic 
system. 

The  plan  suggested  is  not  expected  to  settle  finally 
this  immensely  important  and  intricate  question,  but  is 
offered  with  the  hope  that  it  may  serve  as  a  practical 
basis  for  working  out  the  details  of  a  Catholic  junior 
high  school. 

The  writer  is  pleased  to  acknowledge  his  indebted- 
ness to  all  the  professors  of  the  University  whose  courses 
he  followed  during  his  three  years  residence ;  in  particu- 
lar he  feels  indebted  to  Very  Eeverend  Doctor  McCor- 
mick  under  whose  direction  his  major  work  was  pursued. 
Acknowledgment  is  made  to  the  writers  whose  works 
were  used,  especially  to  Doctors  Thomas  H.  Briggs, 
Calvin  0.  Davis  and  Aubrey  Augustus  Douglass.  To 
the  Eight  Eeverend  Joseph  Chartrand,  D.D.,  Bishop  of 
Indianapolis,  the  writer  is  particularly  grateful  for  the 
permission  accorded  him  to  spend  three  years  in  graduate 
study  at  the  Catholic  University  of  America. 


1  lit 


CHAPTER  I 
Origin  of  the  Junior  High  School  Movement 

The  three  decades  between  1830  and  1860  approxi- 
mately represent  the  period  of  struggle  for  recognition 
on  the  part  of  the  graded  system  of  elementary  schools. 
During  this  period,  through  the  efforts  of  Horace  Mann 
in  Massachusetts,  Henry  Barnard  in  Connecticut,  John 
D.  Pierce  in  Michigan,  and  Calvin  E.  Stowe  in  Ohio,  the 
educational  forces  of  the  country  were  gradually  con- 
certed into  a  movement  to  organize  the  elementary 
schools  on  a  graded  basis.  During  the  early  part  of  this 
period  the  progress  was  slow,  but  by  1860  "nearly  every 
city  and  town  of  any  consequence  in  the  country,  as  well 
as  many  populous  rural  communities,  had  its  own  system 
of  elementary  schools  organized  on  a  graded  basis  with 
a  definite  course  of  study,  embracing  definite  time  limits, 
the  whole  sanctioned  and  protected  by  legislative  enact- 
ment."1 

In  less  than  ten  years  after  the  advocates  of  the 
graded  system  of  elementary  schools  had  won  recogni- 
tion for  their  views,  a  discussion  was  started  by  Harris, 
superintendent  of  the  St.  Louis  public  schools,  on  its 
disadvantages  as  it  was  then  established.  In  his  annual 
reports  issued  between  1868  and  1875,  Harris  endeavored 
to  show  that  annual  promotions  with  a  common  standard 
for  all  children  failed  to  provide  for  their  different 
capacities,  temperaments,  tastes  and  mental  and  physi- 
cal endowments.  The  responsibility  for  this  failure, 
according  to  Harris,  rests  upon  the  supporters  of  the 
graded  school  who  attempted  to  provide  a  system  of 
education  for  the  average  child,  which  child  does  not 
exist.  He  contended  that  the  system  must  be  so  modified 
that  it  would  deal  justly,  both  with  the  child  above  the 

1.  Bunker,  Frank  Forest,  "Reorganization  of  the  Public  School  System. 
Bulletin,  1916,  No.  8,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  page  34. 


,   .  -    -   .  •    ......     •    *    *  \ 


2  The  Junior  High  School 

\  average  and  with  the  child  below  the  average.     As  a 
constructive  suggestion,  he  advanced  his  theory  of  fre- 
quent classification  and  frequent  promotion  whereby,  as 
he  believed,  each  child  could  find  his  level  and  not  be 
/  retarded  by  the  superiority  of  some  children  or  by  the 
j  inferiority  of  other  children.    The  intent  of  Harris  was  to 
I  provide  an  arrangement  whereby,  while  children  were 
being  educated  in  groups — an  economic  necessity  as  well 
as  a  social  advantage — their  individual  differences  would 
receive  the  proper  consideration.^ 

The  scholarly  treatment  of  the  disadvantages  of  the 
|  graded  system  by  Harris  and  his  clear  and  logical  ex- 
i  planation  of  his  theory  to  remove  these  disadvantages 
'   attracted  the  attention  of  a  large  number  of  eminent 
\  educators  throughout  the  country.    While  many  of  these 
*  educators  found  sufficient  reason  in  the  arguments  of 
Harris  to  agree  with  his  views,  others  did  not  hesitate 
to  disclose  what  they  considered  the  shortcomings  of  the 
plan  and  some  even  strenuously  opposed  its  adoption.  It 
is  noteworthy,  however,  that  practically  all  the  educators 
of  the  country,  who  expressed  opinions  on  the  theory  of 
the  St.  Louis  superintendent,  acknowledged  the  existence 
of  the  disadvantages  he  had  pointed  out,  even  though  all 
could  not  agree  with  his  views  relative  to  the  remedy. 
This  general  concession  is  very  clearly  stated  in  the 
paper  of  Hon.  E.  E.  White,  of  Ohio,  read  at  the  Conven- 
tion of  the  N.  E.  A.  held  in  Detroit  in  1874.     Speaking 
in  favor  of  the  St.  Louis  plan  of  frequent  classification 
and  frequent  promotion,  White  declared :    "  It  is  believed 
by  many  experienced  superintendents  and  other  intelli- 
gent observers  that  the  universal  experience  of  graded 
\    schools  condemns  the  prevalent  practice  of  promoting 
\  children  but  once  a  year  witl*  a  year's  interval  between 
the  classes."5 

2.  Beport  of  the   United  States  Commissioner  of  Education,  1898  to 
1899.     Vol.  I,  page  304. 

3.  Ibid.  p.  304. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System  3 

As  a  result  of  this  general  acknowledgment  of 
certain  deficiencies  in  the  promotional  plans  of  the  ele- 
mentary schools,  a  great  many  different  methods  of  solv- 
ing the  problem  were  advanced.  A  rather  accurate  sum- 
mation of  the  methods  proposed  may  be  found  in  the 
attempt  of  Dr.  Philbeck  in  1885  to  harmonize  these  vary- 
ing views.  After  reviewing  the  problems  of  promotion 
and  giving  due  consideration  to  prevalent  practice,  he 
set  forth  the  following  conclusions: 

1 — For  the  lower  grades,  annual  promotion  is  not 
sufficiently  frequent. 

2 — The  quarterly  promotion  is  perhaps  too  frequent, 
especially  if  carried  through  all  the  grammar  school 
grades,  necessitating  quarterly  graduation  from  the 
grammar  school  and  quarterly  admission  to  the  high 
school. 

3 — Better  than  either  of  these  extremes  is  the  plan  \ 
of  semi-annual  promotions  in  the  lower  grades  and  an-  I 
nual  in  the  upper. 

4 — It  should  be  understood  that  a  division  (that  is, 
the  body  of  pupils  in  one  room  under  one  teacher)  may 
be  composed  of  pupils  belonging  to  two  different  grades 
or  classes,  if  the  just  classification  requires  such  an 
arrangement. 

5 — Promotions  should  be  made  both  by  classes  and 
individually. 

6 — In  determining  the  qualification  of  the  pupil  for 
promotion,  his  mental  capacity,  physical  condition  and 
age  should  be  taken  into  account,  as  well  as  his  scholastic 
attainments;  the  examiner  should  ask  himself,  is  this 
pupil  capable  of  doing  the  work  of  the  next  class  without 
injury  to  himself? 

7 — Promotion  should  not  be  made  on  the  basis  of  a 
predetermined  percentage  of  examination  results.    Pro- 


4  The  Junior  High  School 

motion   from   class   to   class    should   be   made   by   the 
principal. 

8 — Promotion  of  primary  scholars,  comprising 
pupils  from  five  to  eight  or  eight  and  a  half  years  of 
age,  should  not  be  made  to  depend  on  the  result  of  a 
written  examination.4  These  conclusions  of  Philbeck, 
however,  did  not  settle  the  question. 

Many  other  plans  of  frequent  promotion  by  which 
it  was  hoped  to  prevent  the  retardation  of  the  more 
gifted  children  and  not  to  overwork  the  less  gifted  were 
devised  a  little  later  and  introduced  into  school  systems 
in  different  parts  of  the  country.  In  Batavia,  New  York, 
a  plan  was  introduced  by  which  one-half  of  the  teacher's 
time  might  be  free  from  class  work,  and  might  be  devoted 
to  helping  the  pupils  in  their  studies.  When  the  number 
of  pupils  in  one  class  exceeded  fifty,  an  assistant  teacher 
was  provided  for  the  class  so  that  recitation  work  and 
assisting  pupils  in  their  study  could  go  on  simultaneously. 
This  plan  has  been  in  use  for  the  past  twenty  years  in  this 
city  and  has  proven  its  value  in  decreasing  retardation 
and  non-promotion.  But  it  has  been  criticised  on  the 
grounds  that  it  tends  toward  producing  average  results 
and  thus  fails  to  provide  for  the  more  gifted  children.5 

In  Pueblo,  Colorado,  a  plan  somewhat  similar  to  the 
Batavia  plan  was  worked  out.  In  Pueblo,  however,  the 
classes  were  small.  Each  class  was  divided  into  five 
smaller  groups  of  about  the  same  size,  and  each  of  these 
smaller  groups  progressed  at  different  rates  of  speed. 
The  primary  aim  of  this  plan  is  to  provide  for  the  needs 
of  the  individual  pupil.  It  was  arranged  that  children 
could  pass  from  one  group  to  another  as  their  progress 
warranted.  The  ease  with  which  pupils  were  transferred 
from  one  division  to  another  under  this  plan  practically 
eliminated  non-promotion.6 

4.  Circular  of  Information,  No.  1,  1885,  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education. 

5.  Cubbery,    Ellwood   P.,   Public   School   Administration,  pp.    301-302. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  New  York. 

6.  Ibid.  p.   302. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System  5 

j  The  new  Cambridge  plan  is  another  effort  to  over- 
ornne  the  problem  of  retardation  and  non-promotion.  In 
4his  plan  two  elementary  courses  were  arranged,  one 
consisting  of  six  years,  the  other  of  eight.  The  children 
who  were  abKTTo  finish  the  elemental1)'  school  in  six  years 
were  given  an  opportunity  to  do  so,  while  those  who 
needed  eight  years  were  permitted  to  proceed  at  a  rate 
compatible  with  their  ability.  There  must  be  some  fail- 
ures in  this  plan  for  it  is  hardly  probable  that  all  children 
will  be  able  to  proceed  as  rapidly  as  the  eight  year  course 
demands.  Provision  was  made  for  this  contingency  to 
some  extent  by  dividing  each  class  into  three  groups. 
Due  to  this  arrangement  the  child  that  fails  is  obliged 
to  repeat  only  one-third  of  a  year  and  not  an  entire  year.7 
This  plan  has  been  widely  used  in  large  school  systems, 
but  is  obviously  unsuited  to  small  systems. 

Similar  plans  were  worked  out  in  Portland,  North 
Denver,  Elizabethtown,  Baltimore,  and  in  several  other 
places.  The  underlying  principle  is  to  prevent  the  re- 
tardation of  the  brightest  children  and  to  provide  for  the 
differences  of  children.  Each  of  these  plans,  in  the  opin- 
ion of  authorities,  has  some  excellent  features  and  has 
produced  excellent  results  where  introduced,  but  no  one 
of  them  proved  to  be  entirely  satisfactory.5 

The  period  (1860-1890)  that  marked  the  attempts  to  ] 
remedy  the  defects  of  the  elementary  school  may,  gen-  \ 
erally  speaking,  be  said  to  embrace  the  same  years  that/ 
witnessed  the  struggle  for  existence  of  the  high  school. i 
Before  1860  there  were  few  such  institutions,  although 
the  high  school  movement  had  begun  as  early^Jas-1821 
with   the   establishment   of  the.  English   classical   high 
school  of  Boston.    The  number  of  these  schools  estab- 
lished between  1860  and  1890  has  been  variously  esti- 
mated by  a  number  of  writers.    However,  there  seems 
to  be  no  satisfactory  data  prior  to  1890,  when  the  com- 


7.  Ibid.  pp.  304-305. 

8.  Ibid.  pp.  305-308. 


6  The  Junior  High  School 

missioner  of  education  began  to  give  some  figures.5  But 
A  it  was  not  until  well  on  into  the  last  half  of  the  nineteenth 
I  century  that  the  right  of  the  State  to  establish  high 
Whools  and  to  support  them  from  the  public  treasury  was 
recognized.10  These  high  schools  at  first,  however, 
varied  so  greatly  in  regard  to  time  allotment  for  com- 
pleting their  courses  that  in  1888  the  National  Educa- 
tional Association  adopted  a  formal  resolution  demand- 
ing that  the  high  school  period  be  made  uniformly  four 
years.11  From  that  time  on  to  the  present,  high  schools 
have  multiplied  very  rapidly  in  all  parts  of  the  country. 
In  1890  there  were  1657^  high  schools  in  the  whole 
country.  In  1916  this  number  had  increased  to  14,206.15 
During  this  time  special  attention  was  given  to  the 
problem  of  satisfying  the  demands  of  those  who  were 
and  those  who  were  not  preparing  for  college. 

During  approximately  the  same  period  (1860-1890) 
that  has  been  designated  as  the  period  of  development 
of  the  elementary  school  and  the  period  of  struggle  for 
existence  of  the  high  school,  the  president  and  faculty 
of  Harvard  University  began  another  very  interesting 
and  important  investigation  in  the  field  of  higher  educa- 
tion. In  his  report  for  the  scholastic  year,  1872-1873, 
President  Eliot  called  attention  to  the  steadily  increas- 
ing age  at  which  students  enter  college.  He  stated,  in 
this  report,  that  "the  average  age  of  admission  has  grad- 
ually risen  until  it  is  now  a  little  over  18  years,  and  the 
college  faculty,  thinking  that  age  to  be  high  enough,  do 
not  wish  to  require  for  admission  anything  more  than  a 


9.  Inglis,   Alexander,    "Principles   of   Secondary   Education,   p.    194. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  New  York. 

10.  Johnston,  Charles  H.,  and  others,  "High  School  Education,"   p. 
64.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York. 

11.  Proceedings,  N.  E.  A.,  1888,  pp.  403-404. 

12.  Estimate  of  Dexter,  Edwin  G.,  "A  History  of  Education  in  the 
United  States,"  p.  173.     New  York,  1904. 

13.  Eeport  of  the   U.   S.   Commissioner  of  Education,  1917,  Vol.  II, 
p.  543. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System  7 

boy  of  eighteen  of  fair  capacity  and  industry  may  rea- 
sonably be  expected  to  have  learned. ' n4 

Again  in  1885-1886,  President  Eliot  noted  that  the 
average  age  of  admission  to  college  had  increased  to  such 
an  extent  that  ' '  about  two-fifths  of  the  freshmen  are  over 
nineteen  at  entrance."*5  This  situation  determined  the 
faculty  to  seek  for  a  remedy  whereby  the  average  age  of 
entrance  to  college  might  be  reduced  to  eighteen  years. 
Four  different  proposals  were  made  by  the  Harvard 
faculty  as  possible  solutions  of  this  particular  problem. 
The  first  three  of  these  proposals  were  confined  chiefly 
to  suggested  changes  within  the  college  itself.*6  The 
fourth  proposal  was  a  call  to  those  responsible  for  ele- 
mentary and  secondary  educatjjon-  to  seek  some  means  of 
savmg  time  in  thrir  ronrir^rfrrr  fields.  This  last  plan, 
for  remedying  the  specific  problem  of  decreasing  the 
average  age  at  which  students  enter  college,  was  placed 
before  the  educational  world  by  President  Eliot  in  1888 
in  that  famous  address  which  is  commonly  considered  the 
beginning  of  the  movement  to  investigate  the  entire 
school  system  of  this  country  with  a  view  to  reorganizing 
the  three  great  divisions  of  education  according  to  their^ 
natural  functions  and  their  true  relationships. 

In  this  address  President  Eliot  declared:  "The 
average  age  of  admission  to  Harvard  College  has  been 
rising  for  sixty  years  past,  and  has  now  reached  the 
extravagant  limit  of  eighteen  years  and  ten  months.' ' 
This  condition,  he  believed,  was  so  unreasonable  that  he 
further  declared:  "Some  remedy  is  urgently  demanded.' ' 
Then,  after  pointing  out  the  arguments  in  favor  of  short- 
ening and  enriching  the  school  program,  President  Eliot 
suggested  the  following  means  to  accomplish  the  neces- 
sary reform : 

14.  Harvard  Beports,  1872-1873,  p.  10. 

15.  Harvard  Beports,  1885-1886,  p.  7. 

16.  Bunker,  Frank  Forest,  op.  cit.,  p.  44. 


8  The  Junior  High  School 

1 — Better  teachers  must  be  secured.     This  can  be 

,  done  by  providing  a  more  secure  tenure  of  office  and  by 

increasing  the  proportion  of  male  teachers  in  the  schools. 

2 — More  substantial  and  more  interesting  programs 
must  be  provided. 

3 — The  time  allotted  to  elementary  education  must 
be  shortened. 

4 — The  erroneous  notion  of  teachers  that  it  is  nec- 
essary for  the  child  to  master  one  thing  before  he  goes 
to  another  and  the  undue  caution  of  parents  on  the  other 
hand  to  prevent  overpressure  must  be  removed. 

5 — The  school  hours,  which  have  been  decidedly 
shortened  during  the  past  two  generations,  must  be 
lengthened.17 

This  paper  of  President  Eliot  was  widely  read  and 
discussed  by  college  and  university  professors  and  edu- 
cators throughout  the  country.15  His  emphasis  of  the 
importance  of  the  problem  and  a  realization  that  the 
existence  of  many  deficiencies  in  the  several  divisions  of 
the  educational  system  had  been  acknowledged  for  a  long 
time,  caused  the  leading  educators  of  the  country  to  turn 
their  attention  to  a  consideration  of  the  entire  range  of 
the  school  system  in  order  to  determine  what  should  be 
done. 

/  In  1892,  the  National  Educational  Association  ap- 
pointed a  committee  of  ten  to  investigate  the  secondary 
schools  of  the  country.  Owing  to  the  close  relationship 
of  these  schools  to  the  elementary  schools  on  the  one  side 
and  to  the  colleges  on  the  other,  this  investigation  neces- 
sarily involved  the  study  of  many  problems  that  affect 
the  whole  educational  system.  The  recommendation  of 
this   committee   that   directly   affected   the   elementary 


17.  Address  in  full  in  Proceedings  of  the  Department  of  Superinten- 
dence of  the  National  Educational  Association,  1888,  pp.  101-118. 

18.  Bunker,  Frank  F.,  op.  cit.,  p.  47. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System  9 

schools  and  the  high  schools  was  the  following:  "In  the 
opinion  of  the  committee,  several  subjects  now  reserved 
for  the  high  school,  such  as  algebra,  geometry,  natural 
science  and  foreign  languages  should  be  begun  earlier 
than  now;  or  as  an  alternative,  the  secondary  school 
period  should  be  made  to  begin  two  years  earlier  than  at  / 
present,  leaving  six  years  instead  of  eight  for  the  elemen- 
tary school  period."19 

This  report,  which  received  considerable  attention 
in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  which  was  discussed 
quite  generally  in  educational  publications  by  well-known 
writers,  was  probably  responsible  for  the  appointment  in 
the  same  year  of  the  committee  of  fifteen  on  elementary 
education  by  the  department  of  superintendence  of  the 
National  Educational  Association.  This  committee  for- 
mulated a  series  of  questions  which  were  sent  to  repre- 
sentative school  men  and  women  in  all  sections  of  the 
country.  The  report  of  the  committee  was  based  to  a 
great  extent  upon  the  replies  to  these  questions  and  for 
this  reason,  the  opinion  expressed  by  the  committee  may 
be  considered  fairly  representative  of  the  general  senti- 
ment of  the  country.  In  view  of  the  answers  received  to 
the  direct  qustion:  "Should  the  elementary  course  be 
eight  years  and  the  secondary  course  four  years,  as  at 
present?  Or  should  the  elementary  course  be  six  years 
and  the  secondary  course  six  years V'g0  The  committee 
reported :  '  *  Your  committee  is  agreed  that  the  time  de- 
voted, to  elementary  school  work  should  not  be  reduced 
from  eight  years,  but  they  have  recommended,  as  herein- 
before stated,  that  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  years  a 
modified  form  of  algebra  be  introduced  in  place  of  ad- 
vanced arithmetic  and  that  in  the  eighth  year  English 
grammar  yield  place  to  Latin.  This  makes,  in  their  > 
opinion,  a  proper  transition  to  the  studies  of  the  secon- 
dary school  and  is  calculated  to  assist  the  pupil  materially 

19.  Beport  of  the  Committee  of  Ten,  p.  45. 

20.  Beport  of  the  Committee  of  Fifteen  on  Elementary  Education, 
p.  10. 


10  The  Junior  High  School 

in  his  preparation  for  that  work.  Hitherto  the  change 
from  the  work  of  the  elementary  school  has  been  too 
abrupt."^  On  the  question  of  differentiated  courses  and 
departmental  teaching,  the  members  of  the  committee 
did  not  agreed 

The  next  study  made  under  the  auspices  of  the  Na- 
tional Educational  Association  was  in  charge  of  a  com- 
mittee on  college  entrance  requirements.  The  findings 
of  this  committee  were  presented  to  the  department  of 
secondary  education  of  the  N.  E.  A.  at  the  meeting  of  the 
Association  held  in  Los  Angeles  in  1899.  In  this  report 
it  was  strongly  recommended:  "That  the  last  two  grades 
that  now  precede  the  high  school  should  be  incorporated 
in  it."*5  One  reason  given  for  this  view  was  that  the 
1  work  required  in  the  high  school  was  in  the  judgment  of 
j  the  committee  more  than  could  be  done  in  the  period  of 
Uime  allotted  to  it.  In  addition  to  this  argument  from 
authority,  the  committee  held  that  the  child  reaches  a 
natural  turning  point  in  his  life  at  the  end  of  the  sixth 
grade  rather  than  at  the  end  of  the  ninth;  that  this  new 
arrangement  of  time  would  permit  other  changes  which 
would  provide  for  an  easy  transition  from  the  elemen- 
tary to  the  secondary  school;  that  this  arrangement 
\would  tend  to  lessen  elimination,  and  finally  that  it  would 
provide  a  better  articulated  system  of  education.*4 

The  second  period  of  the  discussion  of  the  problem 
raised  by  President  Eliot  was  devoted  to  the  considera- 
tion of  practical  ways  and  means  of  bringing  about  this 
desired  reorganization  of  the  school  system.  This  period 
extended  approximately  from  1900  to  1912.*5  During  the 
first  four  years  practically  every  phase  of  the  question 
of  reorganization  received  consideration  and  nearly  all 
of  the  present-day  arguments  for  and  against  a  reorgan- 

21.  Ibid,   p.   95. 

22.  Ibid.  p.  196. 

23.  Report  of  the  Committee  on  College  Entrance  Requirements,  p.  23. 

24.  Ibid.  p.  30,  et  seq. 

25.  Bunker,  Frank  F.,  op.  cit.,  p.  73. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  Systc>:i         11 

ization  of  both  the  elementary  and  the  high  school  may 
be  found  in  the  literature  dealing  with  the  question/6 
The  tendency  to  shorten  the  time  allotted  to  elementary 
education  gradually  grew  very  much  stronger  from  1900 
to  1910  and  in  1914,  Kingsley  stated  that  the  old  plan  of  j 
devoting  eight  years  to  elementary  and  four  years  to/ 
secondary  education  was  rapidly  becoming  obsolete.*7     / 

The  National  Educational  Association  continued  its 
investigation  during  this  second  period  through  the  Na- 
tional Council  of  Education  and  the  Department  of 
Secondary  Education.  The  progress  of  the  movement 
was  also  aided  by  the  studies  of  the  University  of  J 
Chicago  and  its  affiliated  schools  under  the  leadership! 
of  President  Harper,  as  well  as  by  the  work  of  the  New/ 
York  and  Brooklyn  Teachers '  Association.  Furthermore, 
the  contributions  of  Professor  Dewey,  of  Superintendent 
Greenwood,  of  Kansas  City,  and  the  paper  of  Dr.  Little 
"Should  the  Course  of  Study  be  Equally  Divided  Be- 
tween the  Elementary  School  and  the  Secondary 
School  V  together  with  the  work  of  President  Baker, 
Drs.  Hanus,  Snedden  and  Prichett,  and  many  other  edu- 
cators and  educational  associations,  laid  the  foundation 
for  the  practical  experiments  which  were  to  be  made 
during  the  third  period  of  this  movement. 

During  these  first  two  decades,  however,  effort  was 
not  confined  entirely  to  theoretical  discussion.  Besides 
the  frequent  promotion  plans  adopted  at  Batavia,  Cam- 
bridge, Pueblo  and  elsewhere,  a  number  of  other  attempts 
were  made  by  superintendents  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  to  improve  conditions  in  the  schools  under  their 
direction.  There  was  a  general  tendency  in  those  places 
where  nine  yeai;s  had  been  given  to  elementary  educa- 
tion to  reduce  the  time  to  eight  and  in  the  South  where 
the  high  school  course  was  quite  generally  limited  to 

26.  Douglass,  Aubrey  A.,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  11.  Fifteenth 
Yearbook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Part  III. 
Public  School  Publishing  Co.,  Bloomington,  111. 

27.  Proceedings  of  the  N.  E.  A.  1914,  pp.  483-488. 


12  The  Junior  High  School 

three  years,  there  was  a  noticeable  tendency  to  add  a 
year  and  thus  conform  to  common  practice.  Then  too, 
plans  were  devised  in  a  number  of  cities  to  make  their 
systems  of  promotion  so  flexible  that  some  children  might 
complete  the  elementary  course  in  a  shorter  time  and 
certain  other  children  might  be  given  more  time  than 
was  generally  required/5 

Out  of  all  the  discussion  and  experiment,  therefore, 

of  the  first  two  periods  of  this  movement  came  a  rather 

*  definite  opinion  that  the  best  solution  of  the  problem  lay 

pi  lengthening  the  time  devoted  to  secondary  education 

and  shortening  the  time  commonly  given  to  elementary 

school  work,  and  a  number  of  cities-  at  a  comparatively 

early  date  began  to  reconstruct  their  school  systems  in 

accordance  with  this  new  theory.    In  these  attempts  at 

reorganization,  the  junior  high  school  was  born  because, 

in  almost  every  in^alfce'wEere  an  attempt  was  made  to 

/improve  the  existing  system,  are  found  one  or  more  of 

/  the  features  that  are  now  quite  commonly  accepted  as 

./  characteristics  of  this  institution. 

In  Eichmond,  Indiana,  since  1896,  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  have  been  housed  in  a  separate  building 
centrally  located  where  the  work  is  carried  on  depart- 
mentally.    Then,  too,  different  courses  of  study  have  been 
offered  "a  Latin  course,  a  German  course,  and  one  in 
which  the  study  of  English  predominates."^    In  June, 
1898,  a  six-year  high  school  course  of  study  was  adopted 
for  the  six  upper  grades  in  Saginaw,  Michigan ;  between 
1896  and  1910,  seventeen  other  cities  are  mentioned  by 
{Bunker  as  having  similarly  reorganized,  illustrating  the 
tendency  to  depart  from  the  8-4  plan/0    Douglass,  how- 
)  ever,  contends  that  from  the  standpoint  of  the  present 
J  conception  of  the  Junior  High  School,  the  pioneers  are 
/  Columbus,    Ohio    (1909) ;   Berkeley,   California    (1910) ; 

28.  Bunker,  op.  tit.,  p.  76. 

29.  Mott,  T.  A.,  Correlation  of  high  school  and  grammar  school  work. 
Proceedings,  N.  E.  A.,  1901,  p.  277. 

30.  Bunker,  op.  tit.,  pp.  79  to  87. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        13 

Concord,  N.  H.  (1910),  and  Los  Angeles,  California 
1911  ).S1  Inglis  agrees  with  Douglass.  In  this  connec- 
tion he  states:  " While  numerous  attempts  had  been 
made  previously  in  different  parts  of  the  country  to  re-' 
organize  the  work  of  the  late  grades  of  the  elementary, 
the  real  beginning  of  the  present  junior  high  school  or 
intermediate  school  movement  is  probably  to  be  found 
in  the  reorganization  of  the  school  systems  in  Columbus, 
Ohio  (1908);  Berkeley,  California  (1910);  Concord, 
New  Hampshire  (1910),  and  Los  Angeles,  California 
(1911)."" 

From  1910  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the  World  War,  the 
number  of  places  that  reorganized  their  educational  sys- 
tems in  whole  or  in  part  increased  from  year  to  year* 
The  progress  of  the  movement  was  interrupted  during 
the  period  of  the  war,  but  now  there  are  evident  signs 
of  the  resumption  of  the  work  of  establishing  junior  high 
schools,  especially  in  the  larger  cities. 

To  show  the  rapid  progress  of  the  junior  high  school 
movement,  its  advocates  have  compiled  a  number  of 
statistical  tables,  a  few  of  which  are  reproduced  here. 
None  of  these  tables  pretends  to  be  mathematically  exact, 
nor  is  it  claimed  that  every  school  listed  is  a  full-fledged 
junior  high  school.  Assuming  that  every  city  or  town 
which  claims  to  have  a  junior  high  school  really  has  one, 
or  at  least  has  made  some  effort  to  readjust  its  school 
system  in  accord  with  this  theory,  it  seems  clear  that  the 
new  movement  has  been  very  widely  accepted  in  a  rather 
short  space  of  time. 

The  following  table  is  taken  from  Douglass.5*  It 
shows  the  years  of  organization  of  159  junior  high 
schools : 


31.  Douglass,  op.  cit.,  pp.  25  and  26. 

32.  Inglis,    Alexander,    Principles    of    Secondary    Education,    p.    292. 
Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  New  York. 

33.  Douglass,  A.,  op.  cit.,  p.  25. 


14 


The  Junior  High  School 


1896 

'98 

'99  1900 

'02 

'04 

'07 

'08 

'09 

'10 

'11 

'12 

'13 

'14 

'15 

'16 

1 

2 

1       1 

2 

1 

2 

3 

2 

4 

6 

14 

31 

41 

36 

13 

Bennett54  gives  a  list  of  the  junior  high  schools  in 
existence  in  1916.  "Reports  show  them  distributed  among 
the  States  as  follows": 


Indiana   24 

Minnesota   24 

North  Dakota  ...20 
Pennsylvania   ...  16 

California 15 

Kansas 13 

New  York 13 

Illinois 9 

Massachusetts  ...   8 

Michigan 8 

Oregon 7 

Idaho  6 

Nebraska 6 


New  Jersey 6 

Ohio 5 

Oklahoma    5 

Tennessee 5 

Texas 5 

Colorado   4 

Missouri 4 

Montana    4 

South  Dakota  ...   4 

Utah 4 

Virginia 4 

Wyoming 4 

Washington 3 


Iowa 3 

Connecticut 2 

Kentucky 2 

Maine 2 

Vermont    2 

Alabama 1 

Arizona    1 


Arkansas    

Florida 

Georgia    

New  Hampshire 
Rhode  Island  . . 


According  to  the  above  table,  there  were  254  junior 
high  schools  in  existence  in  1916,  and  these  were  distrib- 
uted throughout  38  States.  The  following  year,  Briggs 
found  that  there  were  791  schools  of  this  type  in  the 
United  States  and  one  or  more  was  established  in  each 
of  the  48  States.  The  distribution  of  these  791  junior 
high  schools  among  the  different  States  is  shown  in  table 
No.  VII,  p.  61,  in  Briggs'  work  on  the  junior  high  school. 
Assuming  that  these  two  tabulations  are  equally  ac- 
curate, it  seems  reasonable  to  conclude  that  the  changes 
in  so  far,  at  least,  as  the  extent  of  the  movement  is  con- 
cerned, are  taking  place  so  rapidly  that  any  calculation 
of  the  number  of  junior  high  schools  in  existence  will 
be  quite  unreliable  after  the  lapse  of  one  year.    For  the 


34.  Bennett,  G.  Vernon,   The  Junior  High  School,  p.   39.     Baltimore, 
Warwick  and  York,  1919. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        15 


sake  of  illustration,  a  few  of  the  more  notable  changes 
shown  in  the  two  lists  are  set  down  in  the  following  two 
columns : 


Bennett's  Table  (1916) 

Indiana    24 

California 15 

Massachusetts    8 

New  York  13 

Iowa   3 

Illinois    9 

Ohio    5 

Utah   4 

Oklahoma 5 

Missouri   4 


Briggs'  Table  (1917) 

Indiana 46 

California    51 

Massachusetts    79 

New  York   47 

Iowa    40 

Illinois    29 

Ohio    34 

Utah   31 

Oklahoma  25 

Missouri  21 


Probably  the  latest  attempt  that  has  been  made  to 
list  the  junior  high  schools  in  this  country  is  found  in 
"The  Junior  High  Clearing  House"  for  April,  1920. 
Here  these  schools  are  enumerated  according  to  the  size 
of  the  city  or  town  in  which  they  are  located.  The  fol- 
lowing table  is  compiled  from  the  data  contained  in  this 
list: 

Table 


Population 

No.  of  Schools 

100,000  or  more 

81 

30,000-100,000 

91 

10,000-   30,000 

88 

5,000-   10,000 

101 

The  total  according  to  this  reckoning  is  361.  It  must 
be  noted,  however,  that  only  places  of  5,000  or  more 
inhabitants  are  mentioned.  According  to  this  same  pub- 
lication: "There  are  upwards  of  2,000  schools  in  the 
United  States  which  have  junior  high  schools  in  name 
or  in  fact."*5 


p.  4. 


35.  The  Junior  Clearing  House,  Vol.  1,  March  to  April,  1921,  No.  8, 


16  The  Junior  High  School 

The  number  of  variations  in  the  attempts  made  to 
determine  the  extent  of  this  movement  is  very  large  and 
clearly  shows  that  there  is  as  yet  no  common  acceptation 
/of  the  meaning  of  the  term  "  Junior  High  School.' '    This 
/  is  the  condition  at  the  present  time.    It  seems  to  indicate 
/  quite  clearly  that  attention  just  now  is  centered  upon 
I  testing  the  workability  of  every  proposal  suggested.    The 
underlying  principles  of  the  theory  are  generally  ac- 
cepted.   The  many  plans  devised  to  translate  these  prin- 
ciples into  practice  are  being  tested  in  the  laboratory 
of  the  school  room.    The  junior  high  school  is  still  in  the 
developmental  stage.    Nevertheless  the  experiments  that 
,  have~alreacTy  Teen  made  are  sufficient  to  suggest  that  the 
\  junior  high  school  in  some  form  will  soon  be  an  integral 
part  of  the  school  system  in  this  country. 


i 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        17 

CHAPTEE  II 

The  Purposes  of  the  Junior  High  School 

The  criticisms  that  have  been  hurled  at  the  school 
system  in  our  country  during  the  past  thirty  years  leave 
no  doubt  that  there  exists  a  wide-spread  dissatisfaction 
with  the  waste  in  education  and  with  the  results  obtained 
under  the  conventional  type  of  school  organization.  The 
literature  of  this  period  is  filled  with  complaints  from 
men  in  all  walks  of  life  that  our  educational  system  is 
not  efficient,  that  it  is  not  economical.  The  practica 
efforts  made  to  secure  better  methods  of  grading  an 
greater  flexibility  in  promotion;  the  introduction  of  de 
partmental  teaching  and  modified  forms  of  election  i 
the  upper  grades  of  the  elementary  school ;  the  attempt 
to  enrich  the  curriculum ;  and  the  introduction  of  manual 
training  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  are  further 
evidence  of  the  general  conviction  that  the  existing  sys- 
tem was  far  from  perfect. 

This  general  dissatisfaction  was  naturally  followed 
by  a  strong  demand  for  remedies.  In  an  attempt  to  meet 
this  demand,  the  educators  of  the  country  started  a  move- 
ment for  complete  reorganization  of  our  educational 
system — elementary,  secondary  and  higher.  The  result 
of  the  theoretic  discussion  and  experimentation,  occa-  j 
sioned  by  this  movement,  will  be,  it  is  hoped,  an  educa 
tional  system  in  which  the  divisions  will  be  determined 
not  by  any  arbitrary  method,  but  by  their  natural  func 
tions  and  their  natural  relationship. 

The  three-fold  division  of  the  educative  process,  ele- 
mentary, secondary  and  higher,  has  been  accepted  from 
very  early  times,  but  every  attempt  to  determine  the 
boundary  lines  of  each  division  has  been  unsatisfactory. 
An  exact  definition  of  elementary  education,  of  secon- 
dary education,  and  of  higher  education  is  indispensable 


-  >■ 


18  The  Junior  High  School 

for  satisfactory  reorganization.  A  clear  distinction  be- 
tween elementary  and  secondary  education  is  particularly 
important  for  the  phase  of  the  movement  with  which  the 
junior  high  school  is  concerned.  Hence,  it  will  be  nec- 
essary to  point  out  the  bases  upon  which  this  distinction 
is  made  in  order  to  define  the  purposes  of  the  junior  high 
school. 

One  basis,  commonly  used  in  the  past,  is  the  chrono- 
logical age  of  the  student.  The  failure  of  this  criterion  is 
clearly  seen  in  the  actual  age-grade  distribution  of  chil- 
dren in  the  United  States.  Inglis1  found  that  children 
twelve  and  thirteen  years  of  age  are  found  in  every  grade 
from  the  first  in  the  elementary  school  to  the  second  year 
in  high  school;  children  of  fourteen,  from  the  first  year  in 
school  to  the  third  year  in  high  school ;  and  in  all  grades 
he  found  some  pupils  fifteen,  sixteen  and  seventeen  years 
old. 

In  a  similar  way,  it  has  been  shown  that  distinction 
based  on  social  factors,  though  of  considerable  impor- 
tance in  other  countries,  until  quite  recently  at  least,  is 
insignificant  in  this  country.  Neither  does  the  distinction 
based  upon  studies  conform  to  present  day  theory, 
although  as  late  as  1912,  the  Federal  Bureau  formulated 
this  definition  of  a  secondary  or  high  school  student: 
"Secondary  student  (or  high  school  student)  should  be 
taken  as  meaning  a  student  who  has  completed  an  ele- 
mentary school  course  of  at  least  seven  years  in  length 
(ordinarily  eight)  or  its  equivalent,  and  has  pursued 
within  the  last  year  two  recognized  high  school  studies ; 
e.  g.,  Latin,  French,  Algebra,  Geometry,  Physical  Geog- 
raphy, Physics  or  General  History."^ 

The  psychological  and  physiological  development  of 
the  children  is  another  basis  for  a  distinction.  It  has 
been  more  frequently  and  persistently  defended  as  the 


1.  Principles   of  Secondary   Education,  p.    5.     Houghton   Mifflin   Co., 
N.  Y. 

2.  Bulletin  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  No.  22,  p.  5   (1912). 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System         19 

true  basis  for  the  distinction  than  any  other  one  factor. 
Examination  of  children  in  school,  however,  has  revealed 
the  fact  that  the  majority  of  children  in  the  elementary 
school  are  immature  and  the  majority  in  the  high  school 
are  mature.  And  these  investigations  have  further 
demonstrated  that  the  pupils  of  the  last  two  grades  of 
the  elementary  school  and  the  first  of  the  high  school  are 
so  mixed  that  a  distinction  between  elementary  and 
secondary  education  based  upon  the  stage  of  development 
of  the  children  is  impossible  at  this  most  important 
point.5  Moreover,  Inglis  found  that  the  children  in  the 
first  six  grades  are  nearly  all  immature  and  those  in  the 
last  three  grades  of  the  high  school  are  nearly  all  ma- 
ture.* This  would  leave  a  group  of  children  approxi- 
mately twelve  to  fifteen  years  of  age  wJie-nrtfrhfe-be  classed 
as  intprTn^ftte^frrrprifij  i.  p.;  nfiithpr  elementary  nor 
secoTIoTaTTTbut  between  the  two.  Only  in  general  are 
these  last  two  statements  true  for  Crampton,5  also 
Douglass,  has  shown  from  figures  that  physiological  and 
chronological  age  do  not  coincide.6  Hence,  physiological 
and  psychological  development,  although  very  important 
factors,  do  not  offer  a  sufficient  basis  upon  which  to  make 
the  distinction. 

These  bases  of  distinction  are  the  principal  ones  that 
have  been  advocated.  But  no  one  of  them  has  been  gen- 
erally accepted.  Now,  in  order  to  establish  a  uniform 
basis  of  distinction,  and  one  which  seems  to  conform  to 
scientific  educational  theory,  the  advocates  of  the  junior 
high  school  idea  have  adopted  tentatively  a  definition  of 
elementary  education  and  secondary  education.  Elemen 
tary  education,  according  to  them,  is  that  portion  of  the 
educative  process  which  is  proper  for  childhood  and  con 


•/ 


3.  Inglis,  op.  cit.,  pp.  61-62. 

4.  Ibid.  p.   262. 

5.  Crampton,   C.   W.,  Anatomical   or  physiological   age  versus  chrono- 
logical age.     Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.   15,  pp.  230-237. 

6.  Douglass,  The  Junior  High  School,  Fifteenth  yearbook,  Nat.   Soc. 
for  the  Study  of  Ed.  Part  III,  pp.  39-44. 


20  The  Junior  High  School 

sists  in  the  acquisition  of  the  tools  of  education  together 
with  those  habits,  attitudes,  facts  and  ideals  that  are 
necessary  for  social  solidarity.    Secondary  education  is 
that  portion  of  the  educative  process  which  is  proper  to 
\  the  adolescent  period  and  consists  in  providing  for  the 
I  different  capacities,  aptitudes  and  interests  of  the  indi- 
vidual. 

These  same  authorities  further  contend  that  it  is 
not  just  a  matter  of  establishing  a  boundary  line  between 
elementary  and  secondary  education,  but  that  the  organ- 
ization within  these  divisions  is  not  functioning  as  it 
should  in  the  lives  of  the  students.  It  is  very  evident 
that  modern  life  has  become  so  complex  through  the  com- 
paratively recent  industrial,  economic  and  social  changes 
that  a  larger  and  ever-increasing  number  of  burdens  are 
being  placed  upon  the  school.  The  function  of  the  school 
of  today,  therefore,  is  quite  different  from  what  it  was 
a  few  decades  ago.  The  conditions  of  living  have  become 
so  much  more  complex,  so  much  more  intricate,  that  the 
home  has  been  obliged  to  delegate  to  the  school  many 
features  of  the  child's  education  which,  in  times  past, 
were  provided  for  very  satisfactorily  in  the  home  by  the 
father  and  mother.  Hence  it  seems  quite  reasonable  that 
the  school,  which  supplied  the  educational  needs  of  the 
children  who  lived  under  conditions  of  comparative  sim- 
plicity in  the  past,  is  entirely  inadequate  to  satisfy  the 
demands  of  the  children  of  the  present  day.  To  assist 
then  in  providing  a  more  efficient  and  more  economical 
system  of  education,  to  establish  a  more  reasonable 
boundary  line  between  elementary  and  secondary  educa- 
tion, and  at  the  same  time  to  meet  the  increasing  demands 
of  modern  life  on  the  school,  the  junior  high  school 
mdveJlimrt  wao  "inaugurated.  It  is  but  one  link  in  the 
chain  of  innovations  which  are  attempting  a  complete 
readjustment  of  the  entire  educational  system  of  the 
country. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System         21 

Generally  speaking,  it  is  the  purpose  of  the  junior 
high  school  to  remedy  the  defects  of  the  conventional 
type  of  organization  in  the  elementary  and  secondary 
schools.  For  this  reason  it  is  deemed  necessary  to  out- 
line the  defects  of  the  existing  system. 

The  first  defect,  from  a  chronological  point  of  view, 
to  receive  serious  consideration  was  the  waste  of  time 
in  the  eight-four  plan  of  organization.  The  most  com- 
mon argument  to  substantiate  the  reality  of  this  defect 
rests  upon  the  results  of  a  number  of  comparative  studies 
of  educational  systems  which  have  demonstrated  that 
secondary  education  is  begun  at  a  later  period  in  the 
child's  life  in  this  country  than  in  any  other  country. 
The  German  youth  begins  his  secondary  education  at  the 
age  of  nine  or  ten ;  the  French  youth  at  the  age  of  ten  or 
eleven ;  while  in  the  United  States  boys  and  girls  usually 
do  not  enter  high  school  until  they  have  reached  the  age 
of  fourteen  or  fifteen.  The  opinions  of  prominent  edu- 
cators add  weight  to  this  argument.  Claxton  believes 
"a  careful  study  of  schools  in  various  parts  of  the  coun- 
try will  reveal  the  fact  that  children  now  mark  time  to  a 
large  extent  through  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades.7 
Koos5  goes  even  further  than  Claxton  and  says :  ' '  There 
is  ample  evidence  that  eight  years  is  more  than  should 
be  devoted  to  equipping  a  normal  child  with  such  com- 
mand of  these  tools  (of  education)  as  he  will  need  to 
make  possible  his  larger  functional  education."  The 
report9  of  the  Committee  on  Economy  of  Time  in  Educa- 
tion declared:  "six  years  is  sufficient  for  the  normal 
child.' '  This  report  of  the  committee  is  based  upon  the 
replies  of  a  large  number  of  educators  throughout  the 
country  to  a  questionnaire.  These  answers  indicate  that 
five-sixths  of  those  who  responded  believe  there  is  waste 


7.  Claxton,  P.  P.,  Junior  High  Clearing  House,  Vol.  I,  No.  2,  p.  14. 
April,  1920. 

8.  The  Junior  High  School,  pp.  31-32. 

9.  Eeport  of  the  Committee  on  Economy  of  Time  in  Education,  p.  65. 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  No.  38,  1913. 


22  The  Junior  High  School 

of  time  in  the  elementary  schools  and  two-thirds  of  them 
think  the  time  should  be  shortened.  It  seems,  therefore, 
to  be  generally  admitted  that  too  much  time  is  given  to 
elementary  education  in  the  present  system. 

This  rather  general  conviction  that  time  was  being 
wasted  in  the  schools  occasioned  a  number  of  investi- 
gations to  determine  the  causes  of  this  waste  so  that 
proper  remedies  might  be  applied.  A  number  of  studies 
of  the  content  of  the  different  subjects  of  the  curriculum, 
such  as  Charters  and  Miller^  made  of  the  errors  in 
English  common  to  children  in  the  elementary  school, 
Ayers  ni  study  showing  the  large  number  of  words  unnec- 
essary taught  in  spelling,  and  Wilson's*^  finding  of  much 
non-essential  matter  in  arithmetic,  furnish  evidence  that 
considerable  time  is  spent  in  teaching  non-essential  por- 
tions of  the  various  subjects. 

Another  cause  of  waste  of  time  in  the  elementary 
school  is  found  in  the  many  reviews  and  in  the  undue 
amount  of  drill  work  with  which  the  curriculum  is 
crowded.  The  frequency  of  these  reviews  and  the  unnec- 
essary amount  of  drill  work,  it  is  claimed,  will  be  evident 
to  any  one  who  takes  the  time  to  examine  a  number  of 
elementary  school  courses.^  On  this  topic  Hill14  dis- 
covered that  in  169  representative  courses  of  study  40 
per  cent  of  the  work  assigned  for  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  is  review.  Hill  concludes  that  "to  argue  that  this 
amount  of  review  is  needed  in  these  grades  is  a  sad  com- 
mentary on  the  work  of  the  lower  grades.' ' 


10.  Charters,  W.  W.  and  Miller,  E.,  " A  Course  of  Study  in  Grammar 
Based  upon  the  Grammatical  Errors  of  School  Children  of  Kansas  City, 
Missouri."     Bulletin  of  the  University  of  Missouri,  Vol.  XVI,  No.  2. 

11.  Ayers,  Leonard  P.,  "Measurement  of  Aoility  in  Spelling."  Rus- 
sel  Sage  Foundation. 

12.  Wilson,  G.  M.,  il A  Survey  of  the  Social  and  Business  Use  of 
Arithmetic."  Sixteenth  Yearbook  of  the  National  Society  for  the  Study 
of  Education,  Part  II,  Chapter  VIII. 

13.  Cf.  Article  of  Carolyn  Hoefer  in  Elementary  School  Journal,  Vol. 
XIX,  pp.  545-54. 

14.  State  Normal  School,  Springfield,  Missouri,  Bulletin  for  Octooer, 
1915. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        23 

Other  causes  are  mentioned  in  the  answers  received 
by  the  Committee  on  Economy  of  Time  in  Education.^ 
The  following  appear  to  be  typical:  time  is  wasted 
through  "odds  and  ends,  fads  and  frills  generally.' ' 
"Among  the  causes  (of  waste  of  time)  are:  poor  teach- 
ing, poor  text-books,  needless  multiplication,  of  the  sub- 
jects taught,  lack  of  continuity  in  its  grades,  such  that 
new  personalities  and  new  methods,  as  the  pupils 
advance,  result  in  undoing  what  has  already  been  done 
and  producing  confusion  rather  than  progress."  There 
is  "waste  in  the  elementary  school,  on  account  of  the  lack 
of  great,  strong,  enthusiastic  teachers."  Finally  it  is 
reported  that  "one  of  the  greatest  sources  of  waste  is 
due  to  lack  of  medical  inspection  of  school  children.' ' 

While  no  one  of  the  arguments  brought  forth  to 
prove  that  there  is  a  waste  of  time  in  the  elementary 
schools  would  be  sufficient  to  settle  the  question  finally, 
still  when  the  weight  of  the  accumulative  argument  is 
considered,  the  advocates  of  reorganization  believe,  little 
doubt  can  remain  that  waste  of  time  is  a  real  defect  of 
the  present  plan  of  elementary  school  organization  in  this 
country. 

One  of  the  specific  purposes  then  of  the  junior  high 
school  is  to  remedy  this  outstanding  defect.  It  proposes 
to  save  one  or  even  two  years  of  time.  Different  plans 
have  been  suggested  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  task. 
One  plan  would  combine  grades  six,  seven,  eight  and 
nine  in  a  way  to  permit  the  work  of  these  four  grades 
to  be  done  in  three  years,  in  the  ordinary  elementary 
school.  Upon  the  completion  of  the  course  in  the  elemen- 
tary school  the  child  enters  the  regular  tenth  grade  of  the 
high  school.  Another  plan  that  has  been  looked  upon 
with  considerable  favor  is  one  in  which  grades  seven, 
eight,  nine  and  ten  are  combined  and  the  matter  of  these 


15.  Beport  of  the  Committee,  p.  65. 


24  The  Junior  High  School 

grades  covered  in  three  years.16  Other  features  of  the 
junior  high  school  are  expected  to  contribute  to  the  con- 
servation of  time  although  their  chief  aim  is  to  realize 
other  purposes  of  this  institution.  The  junior  high 
school  will  give  the  normal  child  an  opportunity  to  begin 
his  secondary  education  at  about  the  age  of  twelve,  and 
thus  prevent  the  undue  prolonging  of  the  study  of  the 
common  branches.  It  will  stop  the  "marking  of  time" 
in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  through  the  abolition 
of  all  unnecessary  drill  work  and  discouraging  reviews. 
It  will  necessitate  the  elimination  from  the  course  of 
study  of  all  subject-matter  which  is  not  essential  to  fit 
the  child  for  life.  By  demanding  better  teachers,  it  will 
save  the  child's  time  because  efficient  teaching  is  essen- 
tially time-saving.  Better  teachers,  it  is  presumed,  will 
be  instrumental  in  eliminating  poor  text-books,  which  are 
necessarily  great  wasters  of  time.  In  short,  it  is  a  lead- 
ing purpose  of  this  new  institution  to  save  time  by  sim- 
plifying the  course  of  study,  by  securing  better  teachers 
and  better  text-books,  while  at  the  same  time  providing 
more  adequately  for  all  the  physical  and  mental  needs 
of  the  children  than  is  done  by  the  present  system. 

That  the  existing  plan  of  school  organization  in  this 
country  has  failed  and  still  fails  to  provide  for  the 
individual  differences  in  children  is  another  of  its  defects 
that  has  received  wide  consideration  and  very  general 
condemnation.  No  one  will  deny  that  children  differ  in 
many  respects.  Physically  children  of  the  same  age  are 
unlike  in  height,  weight  and  lung  capacity.  The  results 
of  an  investigation  on  physical  growth  of  861  boys  and 
1,063  girls  are  presented  by  Baldwin.17  This  study  fur- 
nishes 33,840  measurements  taken  by  trained  anthropo- 
metrists  during  a  period  of  twelve  years,  beginning  with 


16.  Bennett,  G-.  Vernon,  The  Junior  High  School,  pp.  17-19.     Warwich 
and  York,  Baltimore  (1919). 

17.  Baldwin,  B.  T.,  "Physical  Growth  and  School  Progress."     U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin  No.  10,  1914. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        25 

the  sixth  year  of  the  children's  lives.  Commenting  upon 
these  measurements  Baldwin  says:  "The  extremes  in 
growth  to  be  noted  are  marked,  in  that  the  tallest  boy  at 
15%  years  of  age  is  49  centimeters  (19.3913  inches) 
taller  than  the  shortest ;  the  tallest  girl  at  13%  years  of 
age  is  39  centimeters  (14.3533  inches)  taller  than  the 
shortest.  The  widest  range  of  differences  is  during  the 
adolescent  period  .  .  .  The  boys  are  taller  than  the 
girls  from  6  to  11  years  of  age;  the  girls  then  become 
taller  and  remain  so  until  14%,  when  the  boys  are 
taller."** 

In  speaking  of  the  weights  of  these  same  children 
taken  during  the  same  period  of  time  at  intervals  of  one 
year  and  one-half  year,  Baldwin  remarks :  ' i  It  is  to  be 
noted  there  is  a  much  wider  range  of  cases  here  than  in 
the  height  distribution.  .  .  .  The  widest  range  of 
differences  is  found  during  the  adolescent  period,  and 
in  particular  at  the  age  of  15  years,  where  the  heaviest 
boy  weighs  110  pounds  more  than  the  lightest,  and  the 
heaviest  girl  104  pounds  more  than  the  lightest.  The 
boys  are  heavier  than  the  girls  from  6  to  12%  years  of 
age;  the  girls  then  become  heavier  and  remain  so  until 
16,  after  which  the  boys  again  are  heavier."19 

This  study  reveals  that  there  is  less  uniformity  in 
lung  capacity  than  in  weight.  As  illustrations  of  the 
extreme  fluctuations,  the  following  cases  are  cited: 
"From  11  to  12  years  of  age  the  lung  capacity  varies 
from  a  loss  of  2  to  a  gain  of  46  cubic  centimeters ;  from 
13  to  14  it  varies  from  a  loss  of  16  to  a  gain  of  56  cubic 
centimeters;  from  14  to  15,  from  a  gain  of  2  to  a  gain 
of  66  cubic  centimeters ;  from  16  to  17,  from  a  loss  of  2 
to  a  gain  of  56  cubic  centimeters. ' Jg0 

There  is  ample  evidence  to  show  the  wide  variations 
in  mental  ability  of  children.    The  range  of  differences 


18.  Ibid.  p.  16. 

19.  Ibid.  p.  16. 

20.  Ibid.  p.  24. 


26  The  Junior  High  School 

between  the  best  and  the  worst  in  a  large  number  of 
mental  tests  given  to  thousands  of  individuals  may  be 
seen  in  any  of  the  works  on  mental  measurements.  In 
view  of  the  results  of  these  mental  tests,  Starch^1  says : 
"The  investigation  of  this  problem  in  recent  years  has 
brought  out  the  fact  that  the  differences  among  human 
beings  are  very  much  greater  than  has  commonly  been 
thought.  If  we  measure  a  group  of  pupils  in  a  given 
class  or  grade,  we  find  that  on  the  average  the  best  pupil 
is  able  to  do  from  two  to  twenty-five  times  as  much  as 
the  poorest  pupil,  or  is  able  to  do  the  same  task  from 
two  to  twenty-five  times  as  well  as  the  poorest  pupil." 

It  is  equally  true  that  children  differ  in  the  keenness 
of  their  powers  of  sensation;  there  are  differences  due 
to  experiences  encountered  before  they  entered  school, 
to  peculiar  advantages  or  disadvantages  of  home  life, 
to  physical  and  mental  defects;  and,  finally,  children 
differ  in  their  capacities,  tastes  and  interests. 

That  the'se  individual  differences  of  children  must  be 
recognized  and,  as  far  as  possible,  be  provided  for  by 
the  school  seems  to  be  obvious.  To  some  extent,  these 
differences  must  receive  consideration  in  the  elementary 
school,  and,  as  is  well  known,  attempts  have  been  made 
to  provide  for  them  through  frequent  promotional  plans, 
the  establishment  of  special  classes,  by  individualizing 
the  recitation,  and  by  making  assignments  in  the  light 
of  individual  needs. 

These  devices  are  insufficient  for  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades  of  the  elementary  school,  it  is  claimed  by 
the  advocates  of  the  junior  high  school.  Something  more 
is  needed  along  the  line  of  differentiation  for  children  of 
these  ages,  something  which  the  traditional  school  is  not 
able  to  provide.  Briggs  does  not  hesitate  to  say  that 
"even  the  beginning  of  differentiation  is  impossible  in 


21.  Educational  Psychology,  pp.  28  and  29,  New  York,  Maemillan  Co., 
1919. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        27 

the  usual  elementary  school."**  By  gathering  together 
large  numbers  of  children  of  approximately  the  same 
stage  of  development  into  one  school  building  it  will  be 
possible  to  form  classes  in  which  the  pupils  will  be  of 
about  the  same  ability.  This  method  of  organization 
provides  the  necessary  conditions  for  departmental 
teaching;  it  makes  possible  some  election  of  studies;  then 
too  a  much  enriched  and  enlarged  program  of  studies 
can  be  offered  in  the  junior  high  school ;  supervised  study 
is  cared  for ;  especially  qualified  teachers  are  employed ; 
there  is  room  for  vocational  training  and  vocational 
guidance.  It  is  by  means  of  these  features  of  its  organ- 
ization that  the  junior  high  school  is  expected  to  make  at 
least  a  nearer  approach  than  the  traditional  school  to 
giving  every  child  the  kind  of  education  demanded  by 
his  peculiar  needs. 

Before  the  differences  in  children  can  be  properly 
provided  for  they  must  be  known.  Granted  that  there 
are  differences  in  seventh  and  eighth  grade  pupils  suffi- 
ciently important  to  demand  special  recognition  by  the 
school,  it  surely  follows  that  the  school  must  provide 
for  their  discovery.  Not  even  the  better  elementary 
eight  year  elementary  schools,  it  is  claimed,  can  ade- 
quately perform  this  function.  On  the  other  hand  the 
junior  high  school,  through  the  features  just  enumer- 
ated, so  its  defenders  say,  will  achieve  this  purpose. 

Recent  studies  have  pointed  out  another  condition 
which  is  considered  a  defect  in  the  elementary  school. 
Children  were  supposed  to  have  completed  the  elemen- 
tary course  of  study  at  the  end  of  their  eighth  year 
in  school,  but  statistics  show  that  this  is  far  from 
being  the  case.  In  the  public  schools  in  the  State  of 
Michigan,  it  was  found  that  the  proportion  of  those 
under-age,  normal-age,  and  over-age  in  227  cities  and 


22.  Op.  cit.,  p.  171. 


28  The  Junior  High  School 

towns   with   an    enrollment   of   223,000   pupils   was    as 
follows  :** 

Under  Age       Normal  Age  Over  Age 

2  years     1  year  1  yr.     2  yrs.     3  yrs. 

.2  6.3  69.5  14.5        6.0         3.5 

These  figures  illustrate  the  fact  that  children  in  large 
numbers,  who  should  be  in  high  school,  are  still  lingering 
on  in  one  grade  or  another  of  the  elementary  school/4 
While  it  must  be  remembered  that  many  causes  of  re- 
tardation are  beyond  the  control  of  the  school,  as  sick- 
ness, late  entrance,  certain  physical  defects,  and  less  than 
average  mental  endowments,  it  is  generally  conceded 
that,  due  to  the  traditional  type  of 'organization,  many 
children  are  permitted  to  remain  in  the  same  grade  for 
two,  three,  and  even  four  years  without  appreciable 
benefit. 

The  junior  high  school,  it  is  believed,  will  be  a  strong 
means  of  preventing  retardation  when  the  causes  of  this 
evil  are  such  as  can  be  controlled.  For  instance,  this 
form  of  organization  will  relieve  the  congested  conditions 
by  removing  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  from  the 
elementary  school  and  the  ninth  grade  from  the  high 
school;  it  will  make  possible  the  classification  of  pupils 
in  homogeneous  groups;  it  will  provide  differentiated 
courses  of  study.  Furthermore,  it  is  claimed  that  better 
teaching  will  result  from  the  junior  high  school  plan 
and  this,  of  itself,  must  contribute  no  small  share  toward 
the  reduction  of  retardation.  Poor  teaching  is  recog- 
nized as  one  of  the  leading  causes  of  retardation  in  the 
ordinary  school.  Not  only  will  the  retardation  of  seventh 
and  eighth  grade  pupils  be  lessened,  but  the  conditions 
in  the  lower  grades  are  also  expected  to  be  remedied  to 
some  extent  through  the  establishment  of  junior  high 
schools. 


23.  Berry,  A  Study  of  Retardation,  Acceleration,  Elimination  and 
Repetition  in  the  Fublic  Elementary  Schools  of  Michigan.  Ann  Arbor, 
Mich.,  1916. 

24.  Inglis,  op.  cit.,  pp.  5-7. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        29 

Closely  related  to  retardation  is  another  condition 
commonly  considered  a  defect  of  the  conventional  plan 
of  elementary  school  organization.  The  large  number  of 
children  who  leave  school  before  they  have  completed 
even  the  elementary  course  and  the  still  greater  number 
that  never  enters  high  school  are  generally  accepted  as 
evidence  that  the  organization  and  the  method  of  proce- 
dure in  our  schools  are  wrong.  Under  any  school  sys- 
tem, there  will  necessarily  be  a  certain  amount  of  elimina- 
tion, due  to  such  uncontrollable  factors  as  death, 
economic  conditions,  change  of  residence,  and  other 
similar  causes,  but  such  factors  alone  are  insufficient  to 
explain  the  amount  of  elimination,  found  in  the  schools 
of  the  United  States.  The  general  condition  of  the 
schools  of  the  country  relative  to  elimination  may  be  seen 
in  the  diagram  designed  for  bulletin  No.  24  (1920),  U.  S. 
Bureau  of  Education.  This  graph  shows  the  per  cent 
of  children  of  each  age  from  5  to  20  years  enrolled  in  the 
public  schools  of  80  cities  in  1918.  The  conditions  in 
these  80  cities  are  probably  typical  of  conditions  in  city 
school  systems  of  the  country/5 

25.  Statistics  of  City  School  Systems.     Bulletin  1920,  No.  24,  p.  94, 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education. 


30 


The  Junior  High  School 


Aye  to  years 


MM 


Estiynaied    percentage,    of  children    of 

each  aye    enrol  led  in  the  public   schools  of 
20  cities    in  19/$. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        31 

Among  the  causes  of  elimination  for  which  the  school 
is  believed  to  be  accountable,  are  unnecessary  retarda- 
tion, failure  to  provide  for  individual  differences,  ineffi- 
cient enforcement  of  attendance  laws,  and  the  lack  of 
proper  articulation  between  the  elementary  and  the 
secondary  schools.  The  changed  conditions  to  which  the 
pupil  must  adjust  himself  on  entering  high  school  are 
so  numerous  and  abrupt  that  scarcely  fifty  per  cent  of 
the  pupils  are  able  to  meet  them/6  Every  one  recognizes 
that  the  methods  of  teaching  in  the  high  school  must 
differ  from  those  in  the  elementary  school.  Departmental 
teaching  is  generally  accepted  as  a  necessity;  so  too  is 
some  form  of  election  of  courses  or  subjects ;  the  subject- 
matter  itself  is  almost  entirely  new;  different  buildings 
must  be  used;  the  form  of  discipline  must  change;  in  a 
word  a  completely  new  environment  must  be  entered. 
Every  one  of  these  adjustments,  it  is  true,  must  be  made, 
but  that  they  must  all  be  made  at  one  time  is  not  so 
certain.  The  very  fact  that,  under  the  existing  plan  of 
school  organization,  the  child  is  required  to  make  so 
many  new  adjustments  abruptly  is  believed  to  be  the 
cause  of  no  small  amount  of  unjustifiable  elimination. 

As  indicated  before,  the  features  of  the  junior  high 
school  are  not  of  such  a  nature  that  a  particular  feature 
or  combination  of  features  is  designed  to  accomplish 
one  purpose  without  having  any  bearing  on  other  pur- 
poses of  the  institution.  There  is  necessarily  an  over- 
lapping. By  the  very  fact  that  the  junior  high  school 
provides  ways  and  means  for  the  prevention  of  retarda- 
tion, it  tends  to  reduce  elimination,  for  retardation  is 
recognized  as  a  cause  of  elimination.  In  like  manner 
provision  for  individual  differences  must  have  a  whole- 
some effect  on  elimination.  To  provide  a  remedy  for 
this  particular  defect,  however,  is  one  of  the  chief  aims 
of  this  institution,  especially  in  grades  seven,  eight  and 
nine,  where  the  bulk  of  elimination  takes  place.     The 

26.  Inglis,  op.  tit.,  p.  128. 


32  ,  The  Junior  High  School 

special  measure  for  the  accomplishment  of  this  purpose 
is  commonly  spoken  of  as  "bridging  the  gap"  between 
the  elementary  and  secondary  schools.  It  consists  in 
making  possible  a  gradual  transition  from  one  division 
of  the  school  to  the  other  through  the  introduction  of 
partial  departmental  teaching,  methods  of  teaching 
especially  adapted  to  the  adolescent,  and  such  a  reorgan- 
ization of  the  curriculum  as  will  avoid  the  necessity,  on 
the  part  of  the  child,  of  beginning  a  large  number  of  new 
subjects  at  the  same  time. 

In  addition  to  the  purposes  treated,  which  seem  to 
have  received  the  widest  consideration,  a  number  of 
others  are  mentioned  by  different  writers  on  the  subject. 
The  junior  high  school  is  intended  to  relieve  the  con- 
gested conditions  of  the  schools ;  to  utilize  old  high  school 
buildings  that  have  been  replaced  by  new  ones  and  are 
too  good  to  be  torn  down;  to  affect  financial  economy; 
to  provide  for  better  teaching;  to  hasten  needed  reform 
in  both  the  elementary  and  high  schools;  to  offer  the 
necessary  conditions  for  supervised  study,  explorational 
guidance,  pre-vocational  work  at  an  earlier  age;  to  make 
easier  desired  reforms ;  to  separate,  for  educational  pur- 
poses, the  adolescents  from  younger  and  older  children ; 
to  encourage  initiative ;  to  provide  for  the  gradual  change 
from  dependence  on  others  to  dependence  on  self ;  and  to 
provide  for  the  separation  of  the  sexes.^7 

Briefly,  then,  the  purpose  of  the  junior  high  school 
is  to  remedy  the  defects  of  the  traditional  school  and  to 
provide  for  the  peculiar  needs  of  adolescents.  This 
implies  that  the  junior  high  school  will  effect  a  saving  o  • 
time ;  that  it  will  offer  the  means  of  providing  the  neces 
sary  amount  of  differentiation  for  children  from  12  to 
15  years  of  age;  that  it  will  close  the  so-called  gap  that 
exists  between  the  elementary  and  high  schools;  that  it 
will  necessitate  a  complete  reorganization  of  the  curricu- 
lum ;  that  it  will  afford  equal  opportunity  to  all  children 

27.  Koos,  op.  cit.,  pp.  18-19. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        33 

for  an  education;  and  finally  that  all  children  who  are 
compelled  to  leave  school  at  the  end  of  the  junior  high 
school  course  will  have  been  prepared  as  well  as  they 
could  be  for  their  future  lives.  In  a  word  the  junior 
high  school  is  expected  to  bring  about  such  changes  in 
the  school  system  as  will  enable  every  child  to  receive 
the  best  education  his  circumstances  will  permit,  with 
the  least  possible  outlay  of  time,  money  and  energy.  Even 
the  most  enthusiastic  supporters  of  the  junior  high 
school,  of  course,  do  not  claim  that  it  is  a  sure  cure  for 
all  educational  ills ;  but  they  do  claim  the  theory  to  be  so 
far  superior  to  the  theory  underlying  the  common  prac- 
tice of  today  that  the  results  which  may  reasonably  be 
expected  from  the  junior  high  school  are  more  than 
sufficient  to  warrant  its  introduction. 


34  The  Junior  High  School 

CHAPTER  III 

What  Is  the  Junior  High  School? 

The  junior  high  school,  as  was  indicated  in  the  two 
preceding  chapters,  is  the  outgrowth  of  a  rather  general 
dissatisfaction  with  the  organization  of  our  educational 
system.  "When  the  fact  became  known  that  this  system 
was  not  functioning  satisfactorily,  educators  began  an 
investigation  to  determine  the  reasons  for  this  failure. 
These  investigations  revealed  many  defects  in  the  entire 
educational  organization,  but  attention  was  gradually 
focussed  on  the  last  two  grades  of  the  elementary  and 
the  first  grade  of  the  high  schools.  From  an  analysis  of 
the  weaknesses  discovered  at  these  points,  a  conviction 
was  formed  that  a  complete  reorganization  of  elementary 
and  secondary  education  was  necessary.  The  efforts  to 
work  out  a  plan  by  which  this  reorganization  might  be 
accomplished  and  the  apparent  defects  removed,  brought 
forth  an  entirely  new  institution — the  junior  high  school. 
The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  an  attempt  to  answer  the 
question — what  is  a  junior  high  school? 

At  the  present  time  there  does  not  exist  a  generally 
accepted  or  uniform  definition  of  this  new  institution. 
There  are  two  kinds  of  definitions,  however,  which  are 
available.  One  may  be  designated  the  theoretical,  be- 
cause it  is  based  almost  entirely  on  the  opinions  of 
specialists  in  this  field ;  the  other  may  be  called  the  prac- 
tical definition  because  it  is  based  largely  on  conditions 
actually  found  in  those  institutions  that  are  known  as 
junior  high  schools.  Neither  of  these  definitions  is  en- 
tirely satisfactory.  They  do,  however,  reveal  the  fact 
that  the  conceptions  of  this  new  institution  are  as  yet 
both  varied  and  incomplete. 

Many  definitions  of  the  junior  high  school  have  been 
formulated  by  individuals  interested  in  the  reorganiza- 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        35 

tion  movement.  These  necessarily  reflect  the  personal 
opinions  of  their  authors,  and  the  particular  educational 
philosophy  and  psychology  upon  which  they  are  based. 
Some  of  them  are  based  on  the  purposes  of  the  institu- 
tion; others  on  the  results  that  are  expected  to  be  ob- 
tained; one  formulates  his  definition  from  the  point  of 
view  of  administration,  another  from  the  point  of  view 
of  organization  and  so  on.  All  of  these  expressions  are 
valuable  since  they  reveal  the  many  features  which  must 
be  considered  before  an  adequate  definition  can  be  con- 
structed. 

A  general  definition,  negative  in  character,  is  given 
by  Horn,1  superintendent  of  schools  in  Houston,  Texas. 
"The  junior  high  school  is  not  an  elementary  school, 
neither  is  it  a  high  school,  neither  is  it  a  sort  of  mixture 
of  the  two  in  equal  proportions.  If  it  is  in  reality  an 
institution  worthy  of  its  place  in  our  educational  economy, 
it  is  an  institution  which  is  neither  an  elementary  school 
nor  a  high  school,  but  a  provision  for  the  needs  of  those 
children  for  which  neither  of  the  older  institutions  made 
suitable  provision.  It  partakes  to  some  extent  of  the 
nature  of  each,  but  is  essentially  different  in  character. ' ' 

A  rather  detailed  and  careful  attempt  to  describe 
another  conception  of  the  junior  high  school  is  made  by 
Lewis/  He  considers  the  following  elements  essential  to 
a  real  junior  high  school : 

1 — The  entrance  requirements  for  the  junior  high 
school  should  provide  for  the  admission  of  three  different 
groups  of  children;  (a)  those  of  fourteen  to  twenty-one 
years  of  age  and  of  uncertain  or  low  educational  attain- 
ments; and  (b)  many  ambitious  children  who  have  left 
school  but  desire  to  return  for  more  education. 

2 — Seven  bases  of  pupil  classification  should  be 
used:     (a)  maturity;    (b)   ability  to  learn  and  to  do; 

1.  The   Junior   High   School   in   Houston,    Texas,    Elementary   Sehool 
Journal,  October,  1915,  p.  92. 

2.  Lewis,  E.  E.,  Standards  of  Measuring  Junior  High .  Schools,  Uni- 
versity of  Iowa,  Extension  Bulletin,  No.  25  (1916). 


36  The  Junior  High  School 

(c)  probable  future  schooling;  (d)  natural  capacity  and 
interest;  (e)  command  of  the  English  language;  (f) 
marked  physical  and  mental  abnormalities;  and  (g)  sex. 

3 — It  should  preferably  include  grades  7-9. 

4 — Promotion  should  be  semi-annual  and  by  subject. 

5 — Every  junior  high  school  should  maintain  at 
least  two  courses — a  general  pre-vocational  course, 
largely  free  from  the  so-called  high  school  subjects,  and 
open  to  children  who  will  probably  not  enter  the  high 
school ;  and  a  literary  or  high  school  preparatory  course 
for  those  intending  to  enter  the  senior  high  school. 

6 — Instruction  should  be  departmentalized. 

7 — All  teachers  should  be  graduates  of  a  four-year 
high  school,  or  its  equivalent.  In  addition  they  should 
be  graduates  of  a  standard  normal  school,  with  at  least 
one  year  of  practice  teaching  experience ;  or  they  should 
have  at  least  two  years  of  college  work  with  preparation 
in  the  branches  to  be  taught,  and  with  practice  teaching 
experience.  Furthermore,  all  teachers  should  be  re- 
quired to  have  had  two  years  of  distinctively  successful 
teaching  experience,  preferably  in  the  grades,  and  should 
show  some  evidence  of  professional  interest,  training 
and  study  before  being  employed  to  teach  in  the  junior 
high  schools. 

8 — A  systematic  scheme  for  educational,  vocational 
and  personal  guidance  should  be  provided. 

9 — Some  method  of  supervised-study  should  be  pro- 
vided. 

The  definition  of  Johnston  is  worthy  of  consideration 
because  he  was  an  authority  on  reorganization.5  He  says 
the  junior  high  school  "is  a  name  we  have  come  to  asso- 
ciate with  new  ideas  of  promotion,  new  methods  of  pre- 
venting elimination,  new  devices  for  moving  selected 
groups  through  subject-matter  at  different  rates,  higher 

3.  Johnston,  Chas.  H.,   The  Junior  High  School,  Educational  Admin- 
istration and  Supervision,  Vol.  II,  No.  7,  Sept.  1916,  p.  424. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        37 

compulsory  school  age,  new  and  thorough  analysis 
(social,  economic,  psychological)  of  pupil  populations, 
enriched  courses,  varied  and  partially  differentiated 
curriculum  offerings,  scientifically  directed  study  prac- 
tice, new  schemes  for  all  sorts  of  educational  guidance 
(educational  in  narrow  sense,  and  also  moral,  tempera- 
mental and  vocational),  new  psychological  characteriza- 
tions of  types  in  approaching  the  paramount  school  prob- 
lem of  individual  differences,  new  school  year,  new 
school  day,  new  kind  of  class  exercise,  new  kinds  of 
laboratory  and  library  equipment  and  utilization,  and 
new  kinds  of  intimate  community  service/ ' 

Of  the  definitions  made  by  individuals,  perhaps  no 
one  has  received  more  wide-spread  attention  than  that  of 
Briggs.4  According  to  him  the  junior  high  school  is  "an 
organization  of  grades  7  and  8,  or  7  to  9,  to  provide  by 
various  means  for  individual  differences,  especially  by 
an  earlier  introduction  of  pre-vocational  work  and  of 
subjects  usually  taught  in  the  high  school."  Briggs 
seems  to  think  the  basic  purpose  of  this  institution  is  to 
provide  for  individual  differences  and  that  its  other  pur- 
poses are  inherent  in  this  one.  The  purposes  of  the 
junior  high  school  are,  it  is  true,  so  closely  interrelated 
that  it  would  be  difficult  to  realize  one  of  them  without, 
in  some  degree,  realizing  all.  Likewise  this  institution, 
if  it  is  to  be  unified,  must,  it  would  seem,  be  based  on 
one  fundamental  idea  and  developed  in  accordance  with 
this  idea.  Briggs  seems  to  have  set  forth  a  definition 
that  would  make  possible  such  an  institution. 

A  good  example  of  a  definition,  the  formation  of 
which  was  concurred  in  by  a  number  of  individuals,  is  the 
one  adopted  by  the  North  Central  Association  in  1918. 
It  includes  a  statement  of  aims.  '  i  The  junior  high  school 
shall  normally  include  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth 
years  of  public  school  work.     The  junior  high  school 


4.  Beport  of  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  1914.     Vol.  I,  p.  137. 


38  The  Junior  High  School 

organization  and  administration  shall  realize  the  follow- 
ing aims  and  purposes : 

1 — To  continue  through  its  instructional  program 
the  aims  of  public  education  in  a  democracy ; 

2 — To  reduce  to  a  minimum  the  elimination  of  pupils 
by  offering  types  of  work  best  suited  to  their  interests, 
needs  and  capacities ; 

3 — To  give  the  pupil  an  opportunity  under  system- 
atical educational  guidance  to  discover  his  dominant  in- 
terests, capacities  and  limitations  with  reference  to  his 
future  vocational  activities,  or  the  continuance  of  his 
education  in  higher  schools. 

4 — To  economize  time  through  such  organization  and 
administration  of  subjects  and  courses,  both  for  those 
who  will  continue  their  education  in  higher  schools  and 
for  those  who  will  enter  immediately  into  life 's  activities. 

Bennett,5  too,  has  formulated  a  definition  which  is 
supposed  to  include  all  the  features  that  are  commonly 
included  in  the  term,  junior  high  school ; 

1 — It  is  a  separate  educational  institution  with  a 
distinct  organization  and  corps  of  officers  and  teachers; 

2 — It  embraces  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  grades 
and  sometimes  the  tenth; 

3 — It  has  a  curriculum  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  enriched  by  the  presence  of  several  high  school 
subjects  and  by  the  broadening,  culturizing  or  vocation- 
alizing  of  the  so-called  common  branches ; 

4 — It  promotes  by  subjects,  even  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades; 

5 — It  permits  and  encourages  a  differentiation  of 
courses  for  the  different  pupils. 

There  are  two  other  methods  of  defining  the  junior 
high  school ;  the  first  is  to  gather  all  published  definitions, 


5.  Bennett,  G.  Vernon,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  1.     Warwick  and 
York,  Baltimore,  1919. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        39 

take  the  items  common  to  them  and  include  these  in  the 
definition ;  the  second  is  to  collate  all  the  elements  found 
in  individual  definitions  and  submit  them  to  a  number  of 
people  who  have  made  a  special  study  of  this  institution, 
with  a  request  for  an  opinion  on  each.  An  attempt  was 
made  by  Briggs  to  formulate  a  definition  of  the  junior 
high  school  in  both  of  these  ways. 

The  first  attempt6  consisted  in  gathering  together 
forty-four  items  listed  under  these  heads:  organization 
purposes,  individual  differences,  methods  of  teaching, 
subject-matter  and  guidance.  A  list  of  these  items  was 
sent  to  four  classes  of  educators,  professors  of  education, 
State  departments  of  education,  city  superintendents  and 
principals  of  junior  high  schools,  with  a  request  that 
each  item  be  marked  essential,  highly  desirable  tho  not 
essential  or  undesirable.  Replies  were  received  from 
sixteen  professors,  eight  representatives  of  State  de- 
partments  of  education,  nineteen  city  superintendents  and 
eighteen  principals  of  junior  high  schools — sixty-one 
judges  representing  twenty-five  States.  This  effort  to 
formulate  a  definition  of  the  junior  high  school  from  the 
composite  opinions  of  a  reasonably  large  number  of 
competent  opinions  is  probably  the  best  attempt  that  has 
been  made.  The  answers  of  the  judges  in  this  case  seem 
to  emphasize  the  truth  that  the  junior  high  school  is  still 
in  the  developmental  stage,  as  well  as  the  fact  that  no  one 
form  of  this  organization  is  adaptable  to  the  peculiar 
local  conditions  of  every  place. 

The  results  of  this  questionnaire  are  presented  in  a 
compact  tabular  form  indicating  the  percentage  of  the 
total  number  of  judges  approving  each  item  as  essential, 
or  desirable,  and  also  the  percentage  of  each  class  of 
judges  who  consider  each  item  essential,  desirable  or 
undesirable.  The  following  table  is  intended  to  show  the 
items  which  are  considered  essential  by  a  majority  of 


6.  Briggs,   Thos.   H.,  What  is  a  Junior  High   School,  Ed.   Adm.   and 
Superv.  Vol.  V,  No.  7,  Sept.  1919,  pp.  283-301. 


40 


The  Junior  High  School 


all  the  judges,  and  also  the  percentage  of  each  group  of 
judges  that  believed  these  items  essential  characteristics 
of  the  junior  high  school : 


Column  1 — All  judges. 

Column  2 — Professors  of  Edu- 
cation. 

Column  3 — State  Departments 
of  Education. 


Column  4 — C  i  t  y  Superinten- 
dents. 

Column  5 — Principals  of  Jun- 
ior High  Schools. 


Columns 


Items  12         3         4        5 

1.  Distinct  educational  unit...     54.1    150.0     62.5     52.6     55.6 

2.  Separated     in     organization 

from  the  elementary  grades     62.3     62.5     50.0     52.6     77.8 

3.  Suitable   for   all   pupils   ap- 

proximately 12-16  years  of 

age 72.1     93.7     50.0     68.4    66.7 

4.  To   retain   pupils    longer    in 

school 72.1     62.5     75.0     73.7     77.8 

5.  To  provide  curricula  of  a  vo- 

cational character  for  pu- 
pils who  will  assuredly 
leave  school  early 59.0     25.0     50.0     73.7     77.8 

6.  To  provide   a  more  gradual 

transition  to  higher  schools    78.7     75.0     75.0     84.2    77.8 

7.  To  accelerate  in  varying  de- 

grees all  pupils   who  will 

continue  in  school. 67.2  68.8  75.0  73.7  55.6 

8.  To  explore  pupils'  interests.  80.3  87.5  75.0  78.9  77.8 

9.  To  explore  pupils' aptitudes.  83.6  87.5  87.5  78.9  83.3 

10.  To  explore  pupils'  capacities     80.3     81.9     75.0     78.9     83.3 

11.  To  explore  for  the  pupil  by 

means  of  material  in  itself 
worth  while  possibilities  in 
the  major  academic  sub- 
jects         59.0     62.5     50.0     52.6     66.7 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        41 


Columns 


Items  1 


12.  Providing  for  individual  dif- 

ferences : 

a)  by  differentiated  curricula    77.0     75.0     62.5     73.7     88.9 

b)  gradually   increasing   in 

differentiation    73.8     81.3     50.0     73.7     77.8 

13.  Methods: 

a)  between  those  of  the  ele- 

mentary school  and  those 

of  the  high  school 72.1 

b)  including  many  projects. .     59.0 

c )  encouraging   initiation   on 

the  part  of  pupils 75.4 

14.  Using  promotion  by  subject.     73.8 

15.  Curricula,    enriched    beyond 

those  commonly  found  for 
pupils  12-16  years  of  age. .     85.3 

16.  Curricula,  flexible  to  suit  in- 

dividual needs   83.6 

17.  Reorganizing  courses  of  study 

so  as  to  eliminate  material 
justified  for  the  most  part : 
a)  only  by  traditional  prac- 
tice        80.0    75.0    87.5    73.7     88.9 

18.  b)  only  by  the  logical  organ- 

ization of  subject-matter    70.5 

19.  Immediate  needs   50.8 

20.  Providing    systematic    guid- 

ance   for    each    individual 
pupil : — educational  65.6 

21.  personal    68.9 

22.  vocational 57.4 

23.  Emphasizing    extra  -  curricu- 

lum   activities    of    various 

kinds 50.8     50.0     62.5     52.6    44.4 


68.8 

87.5 

84.2 

55.6 

56.3 

87.5 

52.6 

55.6 

68.8 

75.0 

84.2 

72.2 

81.9 

75.0 

68.4 

72.2 

87.5 

87.5 

73.7 

94.4 

81.9  100.0 

73.7 

88.9 

68.8 

87.5 

78.9 

55.6 

43.8 

75.0 

42.0 

61.7 

75.0 

50.0 

63.2 

66.7 

75.0 

62.5 

68.4 

66.7 

62.5 

37.5 

57.9 

61.7 

42  The  Junior  High  School 


Columns 


Items 


24.  Granting  an  increased 
amount  of  opportunity  to 
pupils  for  participation  in 
the  social  administration  of 
the  school   52.4     37.5     75.0     57.9     50.0 

Briggs '  second  attempt  was  to  formulate  a  definition 
by  examining  a  number  of  individual  definitions  and  tak- 
ing the  features  common  to  them  as  the  basis  of  a  defini- 
tion. This  collation  of  a  number  of  definitions  is  valuable 
in  that  it  shows  the  many  items  that  have  to  be  considered 
as  possible  elements  of  the  junior  high  school,  and  at 
the  same  time,  what  items  have  been  used  most  frequently 
by  individuals  in  attempting  to  define  this  new  institu- 
tion. The  same  arrangement  of  items  used  in  his  at- 
tempt to  answer  the  question — "What  is  a  junior  high 
school' ' — is  adopted  in  this  second  study.  Sixty-eight 
authors  of  definitions  were  consulted  and  the  results  pre- 
sented in  a  table  indicating  the  items  found  in  the  defini- 
tion of  each  author.  In  a  second  table  the  writer  sets 
down  the  percentage  of  the  sixty-eight  authors  who  ap- 
prove each  item  and  for  the  sake  of  comparison,  he  also 
presents  the  percentage  of  the  judges  who  approved  these 
items  in  September,  1919.  This  study  shows  that  only 
two  items  are  mentioned  by  more  than  fifty  per  cent  of 
the  authors  consulted  as  elements  of  the  junior  high 
school ;  provision  for  individual  differences  is  mentioned 
by  64.7  per  cent  and  departmental  teaching  by  51.5  per 
cent. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  many  of  these  definitions 
were  formulated  with  a  specific  purpose  in  view,  and  can 
hardly  be  taken  as  expressing  the  complete  opinion  on 
the  junior  high  school  of  their  authors.  This  fact  must 
be  taken  into  consideration  too  when  the  results  of  this 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        43 

attempt  to  form  a  composite  definition  are  compared  with 
Briggs'  earlier  attempt  to  realize  the  same  purpose.  In 
the  first  instance,  the  men  who  acted  as  judges  were  pre- 
sented with  a  long  list  of  items  and  requested  to  pass 
judgment  on  each  item  as  a  feature  of  the  junior  high 
school.  In  this  second  effort  to  arrive  at  common  view 
regarding  the  meaning  of  the  term  junior  high  school, 
each  item  that  had  been  presented  to  the  judges  in  the 
former  case  is  sought  in  definitions  set  down  in  limited 
space  and  including  only  such  elements  as  were  consid- 
ered essential  from  one  or  two  points  of  view.  Hence 
it  is  scarcely  true  to  say  that  these  definitions  are,  in  all 
cases,  full  expressions  of  their 'author's  answer  to  the 
question — "What  is  a  junior  high  school ?"  For  the 
sake  of  permitting  a  comparison  between  the  results 
obtained  in  the  two  above-mentioned  ways,  the  following 
table  made  by  Briggs7  is  reproduced  here. 

Table  II 

Showing  the  percentage  of  68  individuals  who  include 
each  item  in  a  definition  of  the  junior  high  school : 

Provisions  for  individual  differences 64.7 

Departmental  teachings 51.5 

Retention  in  school   48.5 

Differentiated  curricula    41.2 

Combination  of  grades  7-8-9 41.2 

Enriched  curricula 39.7 

Promotion  by  subject 39.7 

Gradual  transition   36.8 

Economy  of  time   29.4 

Homogeneous  grouping 23.4 

Exploration  of  interests,  aptitudes  and  capacities 22.1 

Supervised  study   20.6 

Vitalized  instruction 20.6 


7.  A  Composite  Definition  of  the  Junior  High  School,  Briggs,  Thos.  H., 
Ed.  Adm.  and  Superv.  Vol.  VI,  No.  4,  April,  1920,  pp.  181-186. 


44  The  Junior  High  School 

Provision  for  adolescence 20.6 

Segregation  (Distinct  Educational  unit)   19.2 

Flexible  curricula    16.2 

Provisions  for  social  interests 16.2 

Prevocational  training 14.7 

[Reorganization  of  subject-matter  10.3 

Meets  community  needs 10.3 

Elimination  of  undesirable  subject-matter 7.4 

Educational  guidance   7.4 

Vocational  guidance    » 7.4 

Vocational  or  trade  training 7.4 

Encourage  initiative   5.9 

These  two  studies  are  the  chief,  if  not  the  only  ones, 
that  have  been  made  to  determine  the  common  accepta- 
tion of  the  term  junior  high  school.  The  evidence  pre- 
sented in  tables  I  and  II  seems  to  vindicate  the  rather 
general  view  that  the  junior  high  school  cannot  be  defined 
dogmatically  at  the  present  time.  In  fact  it  is  not  an 
easy  task  to  determine  theoretically  just  what  features 
should  be  included  in  a  description  of  a  typical  junior 
high  school. 

The  second  type  of  definition,  designated  as  the 
practical,  is  formulated  by  examining  those  schools  in 
various  cities  and  towns  throughout  the  country  and 
gathering  together  the  features  that  are  more  or  less 
common  to  all.  In  order  to  form  some  notion  as  to  what 
features  of  the  theoretical  plan  have  been  accepted  in 
practice  a  number  of  junior  high  schools  have  been  exam- 
ined relative  to  methods  of  housing,  manner  of  grouping 
grades,  curriculums  adopted,  and  so  forth. 

Three  methods  of  housing  junior  high  school  pupils 
are  generally  in  use;  the  first  is  to  gather  them  all  into 
separate  buildings;  the  second  is  to  house  them  in. the 
same  building  with  the  senior  high  school  students;  and 
the  third  is  to  provide  for  them  in  the  elementary  school 
building.     Briggs,  Douglass  and  Davis  have  gathered 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        45 

statistics  on  the  different  methods  in  use  in  different 
places.  In  these  three  reports  six  hundred  and  eighty- 
five  junior  high  schools  were  examined.  Davis'  figures 
are  based  on  questionnaire  returns  from  two  hundred 
and  seventy-two  such  schools  found  in  seventeen  differ- 
ent states;  Douglass'  study  of  178  schools  is  the  source 
of  his  computation;  and  Briggs  received  information 
from  317  schools.  It  is  not  intended  to  leave  the  impres- 
sion that  each  of  these  studies  was  concerned  with 
different  schools,  for  there  is  little  dQubt  that  the  same 
school  was  examined  by  the  three  in  many  instances. 

Douglass  found  that  of  178  schools  45  are  housed 
alone,  59  with  the  senior  high  school,  63  with  the  elemen- 
tary school,  two  in  annexes  to  the  senior  high  school,  and 
in  nine  systems,  some  of  the  junior  high  schools  are 
housed  alone  and  the  remainder  with  other  grades."5 
The  report  received  by  Briggs  from  317  schools  shows 
"88  are  in  buildings  of  their  own,  some  of  these  being 
old  high  school  buildings,  and  others  elementary  school 
buildings  more  or  less  remodeled  for  the  purpose.  Ninety 
junior  high  schools  are  housed  with  the  elementary 
grades,  while  83  are  in  the  same  building  as  the  senior 
high  school.  There  are  some  places  where  the  junior 
high  school  pupils  are  housed  with  both  the  elementary 
and  the  high  school.  In  a  few  cases,  all  the  children  are 
housed  in  the  same  building  and  in  three  instances,  junior 
high  schools  are  conducted  in  the  same  building  that  is 
used  for  the  training  of  teachers."  In  the  North  Central 
Association  territory,  Davis  found  that  there  are  293 
junior  high  schools,  but  of  this  number  only  168  are 
known  by  this  name ;  46  are  called  departmental  schools ; 
12,  six-year  high  schools;  67,  other  names,  and  45  are 
still  following  the  eight-four  plan.  Of  the  293  that  are 
listed  as  junior  high  schools,  even  though  some  are  known 
by  other  names,  138  are  housed  in  the  senior  high  school 


8.  Douglass,  A.  A.,  The  Junior  High  School,  Fifteenth  Yearbook  of  the 
National  Society  for  the  Study  of  Education,  Part  III,  p.  92. 


46  The  Junior  High  School 

building ;  85  in  the  same  building  as  the  elementary  school 
pupils ;  49  in  buildings  of  their  own,  and  105  are  ' '  segre- 
gated in  buildings.' '9  No  mention  is  made  of  the  manner 
in  which  the  other  six  systems  provide  housing  for  their 
pupils. 

In  the  following  table  the  variations  in  methods  of 
housing  junior  high  school  pupils,  as  reported  by  these 
three  writers  can  be  clearly  seen : 

Table  III 

Housed  in  Briggs 

Separate  buildings 88 

Senior  high  building   83 

Elementary  school  building 90 

Segregated  part  of  building 

Elem.  and  senior  high  building 53 

Building  for  training  teachers 3 

Annexes  to  senior  high  building 


Douglass 

Davis 

.     45 

49 

59 

138 

63 

85 

105 

317  169  377 

The  second  feature  of  the  junior  high  schools  to  be 
considered  is  the  manner  of  grouping  the  grades.  The 
most  common  plan  of  grouping  grades  in  the  United 
States  has  been  to  give  eight  years  to  elementary  and 
four  years  to  high  school  work.  In  some  parts  of  the 
country  until  quite  recently  it  was  the  practice  to  devote 
nine  years  to  elementary  education  and  four  to  secon- 
dary. In  the  South  only  seven  years  were  given  to 
elementary  education,  followed  by  a  four-year  high 
school  course.  The  actual  conditions  as  they  existed  in 
1911  respecting  the  number  of  years  embraced  in  each 
division  are  reported  by  Bunker  from  a  canvass  of  669 
cities  having  a  population  of  8,000  or  more,  "489  have  a 
course  of  eight  years  elementary  and  four  years  secon- 

9.  Davis,  C.  O.,  The  Junior  High  School  in  the  North  Central  Associa- 
tion Territory,  School  Review,  26;  May,  1918,  p.  326. 


Its  Feasibility  inthe  Catholic  Educational  System        47 

dary;  48  have  a  course  of  seven  years  elementary  and 
four  years  secondary ;  86  have  one  of  nine  years  elemen- 
tary (not  including  the  kindergarten)  and  four  years 
secondary;  seven  have  the  usual  eight  years  elementary 
but  offer  only  three  years  in  the  high  school ;  four  tmve 
a  course  of  eight  years  elementary  and  five  years  secon- 
dary; three  have  organized  on  the  basis  of  seven  years 
elementary  and  five  years  secondary;  eight  are  repre- 
sented in  the  plan  calling  for  six  years  elementary  and 
four  years  secondary,  seven  years  elementary  and  three 
years  secondary,  nine  years  elementary  and  three  years 
secondary,  and  twenty-four  have  made  or  are  making 
significant  departures  from  the  foregoing  types."^ 

The  departure  from  types  referred  to  by  Bunker  is 
the  result  of  the  reorganization  movement.  The  tendency 
seems  to  be  to  shorten  the  time  allotted  to  elementary 
education  in  the  past  and  to  devote  the  time  thus  gained 
to  secondary  education.  It  is  through  the  junior  high 
school  that  this  intention  is  expected  to  be  realized,  but 
just  what  form  of  grade  grouping  will  be  most  service- 
able and  at  the  same  time  feasible  is  still  a  question  of 
dispute.  Statistical  evidence  now  available  indicates  that 
practice  is  by  no  means  uniform. 

There  are  eleven  different  groupings  of  grades  in 
existing  school  systems  claiming  to  have  junior  high 
schools.  These  plans  of  grouping  grades  are  the  fol- 
lowing :  5-7 ;  5-8 ;  6-7 ;  6-8 ;  7-8 ;  7-9 ;  6-6 ;  8 ;  9 ;  8-9 ;  7-10.  By 
far  the  most  common  plans  are  the  7-8  and  the  7-9.  It 
may  be  well  to  note  here  that  theory  tends  to  favor  the 
two  plans  most  frequently  found  in  practice. 

The  table  below  shows  the  findings  of  three  different 
investigations  relative  to  the  grouping  of  grades  in  junior 
high  schools : 


10.  Bur.kcr,  F.  F.,  op.  cit.,  p.  75. 


48 


The  Junior  High  School 


Table  IV 

Number 

of  Syst 

ems 

Briggs1 

Dougl 

ass2 

Davis3 

Grades  Included 

•      5-7 

00 

1 

00 

5-8 

00 

1 

00 

6-7 

00 

1 

00 

6-8 

3 

11 

22 

6-6 

00 

10 

(7-12) 

7-8 

71 

77 

133 

7-9 

174 

64 

89 

7-10 

00 

7 

* 

00 

8 

6 

3 

11 

8-9 

8 

8 

8 

9 

2 

1 

00 

7 

2 

00 

00 

8-10 

1 

00 

00 

Others 

00 
267 

00 
184 

11 

1.  Briggs,  T.  H.,   The  Junior  High  School,  p.  94,   Houghton  Mifflin, 
New  York. 

2.  Douglass,  The  Junior  High  School  Fifteenth  Year-Book  N.  S.  for 
Study  of  Ed.  Part  III,  p.  88,  1919. 

3.  Davis,  C.  O.,  Junior  High  School  in  the  North  Cent.  Assn.  Territory. 
School  Review  26;   326,  May,  1918. 

Briggs11  remarks  "The  number  of  grades  in  the 
junior  high  school  is  still  widely  variable,  tho  the  ten- 
dency is  strongly  toward  a  combination  of  the  seventh, 
eighth  and  ninth."  According  to  Douglass  existing 
building  facilities  and  other  local  conditions  are  impor- 
tant factors  in  determining  the  present  grouping  of 
grades  in  the  junior  high  sphool.  He  notes  further  that 
of  twenty-two  other  places  which  have  expressed  an 
intention  of  reorganizing  their  systems,  the  7-9  plan  of 
grouping  grades  will  be  adopted  by  sixteen  and  that  in 

11.  Ibid.  p.  93. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        49 

many  instances  the  existing  7-8  arrangement  must  be 
looked  upon  as  a  stage  of  development  rather  than  a  fixed 
and  final  grouping  of  grades.  This  author  seems  further- 
more to  believe  the  grouping  of  grades  must  depend  to 
a  large  extent  upon  the  environment  in  which  the  junior 
high  school  is  located,  and  in  this  matter  Douglass'  view 
is  shared  by  quite  a  few  others.  Davis'  study  is  perhaps 
the  most  exact  of  the  three  for  the  information  contained 
in  it  was  taken  from  obligatory  reports  of  all  the  accred- 
ited schools  in  the  North  Central  Association.  It  is  true 
this  study  was  limited  to  a  certain  section  of  the  countiy, 
but  this  section — including  seventeen  states — seems  to  be 
sufficiently  large  to  justify  the  inference  that  conditions 
found  there  are  typical  of  the  junior  high  schools 
throughout  the  country. 

The  reorganization  of  the  curriculum  is  one  of  the 
most  important  features  of  the  junior  high  school  and 
must  necessarily  form  an  essential  part  of  a  definition  of 
this  institution.  In  practice,  however,  comparatively 
little  has  been  done  in  this  respect.  Johnston,  who  had 
visited  a  large  number  of  junior  high  schools,  found  "in 
all  cases  the  principal,  proudly  conscious  of  the  distinc- 
tiveness of  his  new  institution,  his  teachers,  pupils, 
building,  etc.,  but  when  inquiries  were  made  concerning 
the  internal  adjustments  the  answer  generally  was:  'we 
haven't  got  that  far  yet,'  'we  plan  to  take  that  up  next 
year,'  'we  have  no  reorganization  of  this  sort  in  pros- 
pect.' "lg  Briggs  writes:  "One  cannot  examine  the  cur- 
ricula and  courses  of  study  without  concluding  that  so 
far  they  have  made  only  a  beginning  at  accomplishing 
desired  ends."15 

In  the  midst  of  all  this  variety,  however,  it  seems 
possible  to  reduce  the  different  curriculums  offered  to 
three  main  classes,  namely,  the  one  curriculum  type,  the 
many  curriculum  type  and  the  type  in  which  certain 

12.  Johnson,  C.  H.  Ed.  Adm/and  Super.  Vol.  I,  p.  411. 

13.  Op.  cit..  p.  155. 


50  The  Junior  High  School 

subjects  are  required  of  all  pupils  and  certain  other 
subjects  are  elective.  But  no  classification  will  be  en- 
tirely satisfactory  on  account  of  unavoidable  overlap- 
ping. A  large  number  of  variations  are  found  in  schools 
that  would  be  classified  under  any  one  of  the  three  large 
divisions;  for  instance,  the  junior  high  school  at  Santa 
Fe,  New  Mexico,  has  one  curriculum  with  rather  a  large 
number  of  subjects,  but  pupils  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  have  no  choice,  while  in  the  ninth  grade,  English 
and  algebra  are  the  only  required  subjects  and  eight 
other  subjects  are  offered  as  electives.  Another  school 
belonging  to  the  one  curriculum  class  but  differing  con- 
siderably from  the  Santa  Fe  school,  is  in  Springfield, 
Illinois.  In  this  school  there  are  only  seven  required 
subjects  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  and  a  choice 
can  be  made  by  the  pupil  between  German  and  indus- 
trial work.  In  the  ninth  grade,  besides  English  and 
algebra,  music  and  drawing  are  required  and  six  subjects 
are  electives.14 

Many  differences  are  also  found  in  the  many  type 
curriculum.  The  range  is  from  two  curriculums  to  five 
and  in  each  the  offerings  of  subjects  admit,  and  in  prac- 
tice actually  show  considerable  variation.  The  number 
of  curriculums  offered  must  necessarily  depend  upon  the 
number  of  pupils  in  one  school  and  their  classification. 
In  large  systems  it  may  be  advantageous  and  feasible  to 
provide  a  wide  range  of  subjects  distributed  through 
the  three,  four,  or  five  curriculums.  Lewis  thinks,  "a 
school  not  maintaining  at  least  two  courses  should  not 
be  entitled  to  the  name  junior  high  school."15 

The  junior  high  school  in  Los  Angeles  has  this  type 
of  curriculum:  Three  courses  are  offered,  a  so-called 
general  course,  a  commercial  course  and  a  vocational 
course.     In  the  first  year  of  the  general  course,  nine 

14.  Douglass,    A.   A.,   Fifteenth    Yearbook,   National   Society   for   the 
Study  of  Education,   Part  III,   1919,   pp.   120-145. 

15.  Lewis,  Ervin  E.,  Standards  for  Measuring  Junior  High  Schools, 
Univ.  of  Iowa  Extention  Bulletin.     Bulletin  No.  25,  Nov.  15,  1916. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        51 

subjects  are  required  and  one  elective  is  to  be  chosen 
from  six  other  subjects.  In  the  second  year,  seven  sub- 
jects must  be  taken  and  two  elections  are  permitted  from 
a  choice  of  eight.  In  the  third  year  only  three  subjects 
are  required  and  two  electives  from  an  offering  of  eleven, 
which  are  the  same  as  the  electives  for  the  first  and 
second  year  with  the  addition  of  three  other  subjects, 
and  then  one  other  elective  must  be  chosen  from  four 
subjects  in  a  special  group.  The  commercial  and  voca- 
tional courses  are  made  up  of  the  same  subjects  as  the 
general  course,  with  a  different  arrangement  of  required 
and  elective  subjects. 

Cincinnati  junior  high  school  offers  two  courses — 
the  industrial  arts  course  and  the  commercial  course. 
No  election  of  subjects  is  permitted  in  any  year  of  either 
course.  Detroit  offers  an  English  course,  a  commercial 
course  and  an  industrial  course.  Duluth,  Minnesota, 
has  one  curriculum  for  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades 
but  in  the  ninth  there  are  four  different  courses.  Many 
other  combinations  are  in  use  in  various  places,  but  the 
arrangement,  as  noted  in  several  places,  seems  to  be 
sufficient  to  illustrate  the  great  variety  of  practice  in 
the  number  and  kind  of  curriculums  offered  in  different 
junior  high  schools.16 

To  illustrate  the  third  type — one  curriculum  with 
constants  and  variables — the  following  table,  entitled 
"Sequential  and  Time  Allotment,"  is  reproduced  from 
a  bulletin  issued  by  the  Board  of  Education  of  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  under  the  title — "Program  of  Studies  and 
Curriculum  Organization  for  1920-1921."  In  reference 
to  this  curriculum  the  following  points  are  noted: 

1)  The  curriculum  is  the  single  type  constant  and 
with  variables.  It  is  difficult,  the  Board  thinks,  to  justify 
differentiated  curriculums  in  the  junior  high  school. 

2)  The  work  is  uniform  in  the  7B  grade.  The  ex- 
ploration of  interests  and  ability  during  this  semester  is 

16.  Bennett,  op.  cit.,  pp.  195-207,  and  Douglass,  op.  cit.,  pp.  121-131. 


52 


The  Junior  High  School 


provided  through  the  organization  and  arrangement  of 
subject-matter,  and  the  variety  of  courses  of  study,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  uniformity  in  requirements  guar- 
antees to  the  pupil  certain  common  experiences,  thus 
meeting  one  of  the  outstanding  purposes  of  the  school. 

3)  Specific  and  adequate  attention  is  given  through 
a  system  of  advice  and  guidance  to  the  choice  of  elective 
studies. 

4)  Pupils  may,  by  choosing  their  electives  with 
care,  prepare  for  specific  curriculums  to  be  entered  in 
the  senior  high  school  or,  in  like  manner,  for  their  life's 
work,  if  they  must  leave  school  at  the  end  of  the  ninth 
grade. 

5)  The  single  curriculum  extending  through  the 
ninth  grade  permits  pupils  to  postpone  the  period  of 
intensive  specialization  until  they  reach  the  tenth  or  the 
first  year  of  the  senior  high  school.17 


Table  IV 


7B  Periods 

Bequired  Per  Week 

English     10 

Mathematics    5 

Geography   5 

History  and  Social  Problems.       4 

Physical  Education   2 

Hygiene     1 

Music    1 

Art    2 

Shop    and    Drawing    4 

Home  Economics   4 

8B  Periods 

Bequired  Per  Week 

English     5 

Mathematics    5 

Social   Science    4 

Physical  Education   2 

Hygiene   1 

Music    1 

Art    2 

Vocations     _ 1 

Shop  and  Drawing    4 


1A  Periods 

Bequired  Per  Week 

English    5 

Mathematics    5 

Geography   5 

History  and  Social  Pbs 4 

Physical  Education   . 2 

Hygiene   1 

Music    1 

Art    2 

Shop  and  Drawing   4 

Home  Economics   4 

Electives  (5  or  6  Periods) 

English    5 

Latin    5 

French    5 

Spanish    5 

Commercial    5 

Shop  and  Drawing   6 

Home  Economics  6 

8A 

Bequired 

English     5 


17.  Program  of  Studies  and  Curriculum  Organization,  Cleveland 
Junior  High  Schools,  Bulletin,  Cleveland  Board  of  Education,  April,  1921, 
p.  3. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System         53 


Home  Economics 4 

Electives  (5  or  6  periods) 

English     5 

Latin    5 

French    5 

Spanish    5 

Commercial    5 

Shop  and  Drawing C 

Home  Economics   6 

9B  Periods 

'Required  Per  Week 

English     5 

Mathematics    5 

Music    2 

Physical  Education   2 

Electives 

Social   Science    5 

Latin    5 

French    5 

Spanish    5 

General  Science  u 

Applied  Art 6-10 

Shop  and  Drawing 10-16 

Home  Economics 10 

Penmanship    10 


Mathematics    

Social   Science    

Physical  Education 

Hygiene   

Music    

Art    

Vocations     

Shop  and  Drawing 

Home    Economics    

Electives   (5  or  6  Periods) 

English    

Latin    

French    

Spanish    

Commercial    

Shop  and  Drawing 

Home  Economics 


9A  * 

Required 

English    5 


Mathematics 

Music    2 

Physical  Education  2 

Electives 

Social  Science    5 

Latin    5 

French    5 

Spanish    5 

General  Science   5 

Applied  Art 6-10 

Shop  and  Drawing 10-16 

Home  Economics   10 

Bookkeeping   10 

These  reports  indicate  quite  clearly  that  the  junior 
high  school  curriculum  is  still  in  the  experimental  stage. 
No  one  plan  is  in  sufficiently  common  use  to  be  termed 
typical.  The  only  indication  from  practice  is  a  general 
recognition  of  the  necessity  for  reorganizing  the  cur- 
riculum, but  just  what  form  this  reorganization  will 
eventually  take  is  yet  to  be  determined. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  one  of  the  most  impor- 
tant, if  not  the  most  important,  questions  relating  to  the 
junior  high  school  is  the  provision  of  properly  qualified 
teachers.  The  difficulty  of  obtaining  teachers  who  are 
capable  of  meeting  the  conditions  demanded  by  this  new 
institution  is  one  of  the  objections  offered  by  those  who 
oppose  the  adoption  of  the  junior  high  school  idea. 


52 


The  Junior  High  School 


provided  through  the  organization  and  arrangement  of 
subject-matter,  and  the  variety  of  courses  of  study,  while 
at  the  same  time  the  uniformity  in  requirements  guar- 
antees to  the  pupil  certain  common  experiences,  thus 
meeting  one  of  the  outstanding  purposes  of  the  school. 

3)  Specific  and  adequate  attention  is  given  through 
a  system  of  advice  and  guidance  to  the  choice  of  elective 
studies. 

4)  Pupils  may,  by  choosing  their  electives  with 
care,  prepare  for  specific  curriculums  to  be  entered  in 
the  senior  high  school  or,  in  like  manner,  for  their  life's 
work,  if  they  must  leave  school  at  the  end  of  the  ninth 
grade. 

5)  The  single  curriculum  extending  through  the 
ninth  grade  permits  pupils  to  postpone  the  period  of 
intensive  specialization  until  they  reach  the  tenth  or  the 
first  year  of  the  senior  high  school.17 


Table  IV 


IB  Periods 

Bequired  Per  Week 

English     10 

Mathematics    5 

Geography   5 

History  and  Social  Problems.       4 

Physical  Education   2 

Hygiene     1 

Music    1 

Art    2 

Shop    and   Drawing    4 

Home  Economics   4 

8B  Periods 

Bequired  Per  Week 

English     5 

Mathematics    5 

Social   Science    4 

Physical  Education   2 

Hygiene   1 

Music    1 

Art    2 

Vocations     _ 1 

Shop  and  Drawing   4 


1A  Periods 

Bequired  Per  Week 

English     5 

Mathematics    5 

Geography   5 

History  and  Social  Pbs 4 

Physical  Education   . 2 

Hygiene   1 

Music    1 

Art    2 

Shop  and  Drawing   4 

Home  Economics   4 

Electives  (5  or  6  Periods) 

English    5 

Latin    5 

French    5 

Spanish    5 

Commercial    5 

Shop  and  Drawing   6 

Home  Economics   6 

8A 

Bequired 

English     5 


17.  Program  of  Studies  and  Curriculum  Organization,  Cleveland 
Junior  High  Schools,  Bulletin,  Cleveland  Board  of  Education,  April,  1921, 
p.  3. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        55 

who  are  teaching  in  the  junior  high.  ' '  That  they  are  not 
fully  met  by  the  teachers  actually  employed  is  easily 
explicable.  Teachers  in  junior  high  schools  probably 
conform  to  ideal  standards  quite  as  closely  as  do  teachers 
in  any  other  types  of  institutions."^ 

There  are  such  other  features  of  the  junior  high 
school  as  entrance  requirements,  methods  of  teaching, 
which  involve  the  consideration  of  the  many  teacher 
plan  as  opposed  to  the  single  teacher  plan,  supervised 
study,  length  of  recitation  periods,  length  of  school  day 
and  year,  arrangement  of  departments  and  equipment, 
that  will,  when  more  definitely  worked  out,  help  to  deter- 
mine what  are  the  essential  features  of  the  junior  high 
school.  Some  form  of  departmental  teaching  is  probably 
found  in  more  junior  high  schools  than  any  other  element 
that  is  considered  a  mark  of  this  institution.  It  is  found 
also  that  in  practically  one-half  of  the  250  junior  high 
schools  reporting,  the  methods  of  teaching  are  more 
closely  related  to  those  used  in  the  elementary  school 
than  to  those  used  in  the  high  school,  while  in  the  other 
half  the  very  opposite  is  reported.15  Investigation  has 
shown  that  supervised  study  has  been  introduced  in  many 
junior  high  schools,  but  wide  variation  in  arrangement 
of  details  still  exists.  This  is  especially  true  in  regard 
to  the  allotment  of  time.  The  most  common  single  prac- 
tice is  the  provision  of  a  fifty  to  sixty  minute  period 
about  equally  divided  in  the  academic  subjects  between 
recitation  and  directed  study."*0 

In  answer  to  his  question — ' i  Upon  what  do  you  make 
entrance  to  the  junior  high  school  depend ?"  Douglassfi 
found  sixty-eight  require  promotion,  completion  or  satis- 
factory completion  of  the  preceding  grade;  four  accept 


18.  Briggs,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  218. 

19.  Ibid.  p.  203. 

20.  Koos,  L.  V.,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  154,  Harcourt,  Brace  & 
Co.,  New  York,  1921. 

21.  Fifteenth  Yearbook,  N.  S.  for  the  Study  of  Education,  PartTTl, 
p.  48. 


56  The  Junior  High  School 

the  recommendation  of  the  teacher  or  principal;  four 
consider  the  pupil's  ability  to  do  the  work  of  the  junior 
high  school;  one  makes  no  special  requirements  and 
eighteen  others  mention  size,  age,  maturity  and  unsuit- 
ableness  of  the  elementary  school.  The  total  number  of 
schools  in  which  all  these  variations  are  found  is  ninety- 
four. 

Promotion  by  subject,  special  equipment  and  other 
features  mentioned  seem  to  be  necessary  to  the  junior 
high  school  from  a  theoretical  point  of  view,  but,  as  in 
the  case  of  entrance  requirements  and  methods  of  study, 
a  large  amount  of  experimentation  will  have  to  be  done 
before  the  details  of  these  factors  can  be  ^determined. 

These  data  clearly  show  that  neither  in  theory  nor 
in  practice  has  any  one  generally  accepted  idea  of  what 
constitutes  a  junior  high  school  been  found.  There  are 
however  a  sufficient  number  of  common  characteristics 
in  all  these  definitions  to  indicate  that  this  concept  is 
gradually  taking  on  a  definite  shape. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        57 


CHAPTER  IV 
Results 

Just  as  the  existing  school  system  is  condemned  on 
the  grounds  that  it  has  failed  to  produce  the  results 
rightly  expected  of  the  school,  so  too  must  the  new  insti- 
tution be  ultimately  measured  by  its  results.  Although 
measurement  of  results  in  education  is  obviously  a  com- 
plicated problem  and  must  remain  so  until  universally 
accepted  standards  of  measurement  are  evolved,  some 
few  things  can  be  rather  definitely  measured  with  the 
means  at  hands.  Thus  it  is  possible  to  determine  the 
extent  of  elimination  in  a  school  system,  the  amount  of 
retardation,  and  the  regularity  of  attendance.  And  from 
the  conclusions  thus  reached  the  relative  success  or  failure 
of  the  particular  type  of  school  can,  to  some  extent,  be 
measured.  The  advocates  of  the  junior  high  school  plan 
of  organization  have  made  numerous  attempts  to  prove 
its  value  from  results  obtained.  Some  of  the  factual 
evidence  offered  in  support  of  its  claims  seem  to  be  of 
sufficient  value  to  deserve  presentation  and  consideration. 

In  regard  to  the  "holding  power' '  of  the  junior  high 
school,  a  number  of  statistics  have  been  gathered  and 
arranged  by  investigators  to  show  that  children  are  re- 
tained in  school  for  a  longer  period  of  time  under  the  new 
type  of  organization  than  under  the  traditional  type. 
It  is  a  truism  to  assert  that  there  is  an  undue  amount  of 
elimination  in  the  schools  of  this  country,  moreover, 
statistics  clearly  show  that  elimination  is  greatest  be- 
tween the  ninth  and  tenth,  the  eighth  and  ninth,  and  the 
seventh  and  eighth  grades.1  These  are  the  grades  with 
which  the  junior  high  school  is  particularly  concerned. 
For  this  reason  attention  in  this  treatise  mav  well  be 


1.  Inglis,  A.,  Principles  of  Secondary  Education,  p.  128.     Houghton 
Mifflin  Co.,  N.  Y. 


58  The  Junior  High  School 

focused  upon  them,  tho  the  need  of  reform  or  improve- 
ment in  grades  above  and  below  is  recognized. 

The  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education  in  his  report 
for  1914  quotes  the  statements  of  a  number  of  junior 
high  school  principals  as  evidence  of  the  holding  power 
of  the  institution.  The  following  appear  to  be  typical, 
"Principal  W.  B.  Clark  of  the  McKinley  Intermediate 
School,  Berkeley,  furnishes  data  showing  that  since  the 
establishment  of  the  school  94.73  per  cent  of  the  pupils 
completing  the  eighth  grade  have  entered  the  ninth, 
and  95.29  per  cent  of  these  completing  the  ninth 
grade  have  entered  the  tenth.  Principal  Preston  of 
the  Franklin  Intermediate  School,  Berkeley,  reports 
that  of  the  last  seven  classes  completing  the  eighth 
grade  under  the  old  organization  40.53  per  cent  en- 
tered the  high  school,  and  that  of  the  first  six  classes 
completing  the  eighth  grade  of  the  intermediate  school 
there  entered  the  ninth  grade  of  the  same  school  65.53 
per  cent,  not  counting  those  who  were  transferred  from 
other  buildings.  Principal  Paul  C.  Stetson  states  that 
86  per  cent  of  the  pupils  in  the  eighth  grade  in  the  Grand 
Rapids  junior  high  school  last  year  entered  the  senior 
high  school,  as  compared  with  76  per  cent  of  the  eighth 
grades  in  the  grammar  schools  of  the  city.  In  Evansville, 
Indiana,  according  the  Principal  Ernest  P.  Wiles,  only 
56  per  cent  of  the  pupils  completing  the  eighth  grade  in 
1912  entered  the  high  school  as  against  84  per  cent  last 
year  of  the  pupils  in  the  junior  high  school."* 

The  answers  to  the  questionnaire  used  in  the  study 
for  the  report  just  quoted  are  summarized  as  follows: 
"of  the  number  of  principals  of  junior  high  schools  re- 
porting, 107  declare  that  the  organization  does  retain 
pupils  in  school  better  than  the  older  plan,  and  two  say 
that  it  does  not.    To  the  three  who  say  frankly  that  they 


2.  Report  of  the  U.  8.  Commissioner  of  Education,  1914,  Vol.  1,  pp. 
143  and  144. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        59 

do  not  know  what  the  effect  is,  should  probably  be  added 
all  those  who  fail  to  answer  the  question. ' 1S 

In  presenting  a  number  of  statistical  tables  bearing 
on  the  reduction  of  elimination  under  the  junior  high 
school  plan  of  organization  Douglass  says  :4  A  number 
of  considerations,  however,  make  any  conclusion  unsatis- 
factory. In  the  first  place,  most  enrolment  figures  are 
lacking  in  many  returns.  Second,  the  increase  in  popula- 
tion, with  many  other  factors  contributing  to  increase 
enrolment,  makes  it  difficult  to  arrive  at  a  fair  conclusion 
as  to  what  extent  the  junior  high  school  has  been  oper- 
ative in  increasing  attendance.  Third,  each  community 
doubtless  presents  its  own  peculiar  problems,  and  it 
is  manifestly  unfair  to  group  together  for  this  comparison 
schools  recently  reorganized  and  those  that  have  been 
operating  a  longer  time." 

Although  the  superintendents  from  whom  Douglass 
secured  the  figures  used  in  his  tables  were  reticent  in 
saying  the  junior  high  school  has  reduced  elimination. 
He  believes  that  the  data  furnished  at  least  indicate  these 
conclusions : 

1 — Increased  enrolment  in  grades  seven,  eight  and 
nine  is  due  in  part,  at  least,  to  the  junior  high  school.  The 
same  is  true  of  grades  ten,  eleven  and  twelve. 

2 — The  percentage  of  students  held  in  the  junior 
high  school  grades  is  somewhat  greater  than  under  the 
old  plan.    This  is  also  true  of  the  senior  high  school. 

3 — The  percentage  of  boys  held  in  the  last  six  grades 
is  greater  under  the  reorganized  system. 

4 — Even  yet  the  percentage  of  pupils  eliminated  at 
the  end  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  is  entirely  too 
large.  Here  pupil  mortality  is  probably  greater  than 
those  interested  in  the  junior  high  school  are  aware. 

3.  Ibid.  p.  142. 

4.  Op.  cit.,  p.  102. 


60  The  Junior  High  School 

Mangun,5  superintendent  of  schools  of  Macomb, 
Illinois,  has  endeavored  to  show  in  presenting  the  results 
of  two  years  of  experience  with  the  6-6  plan  of  organiza- 
tion the  "holding  power' '  of  the  new  system.  He 
attempted  to  prove  that  the  increased  enrolment  in  the 
Macomb  schools  is  not  merely  a  part  of  the  general 
movement  to  increase  high  school  enrolment  through  the 
country,  but  the  direct  result  of  the  reorganized  system. 
For  this  comparison  he  takes  the  increased  enrolment 
of  the  State  of  Illinois  as  typical  of  the  whole  country. 
Figures  furnished  by  Mangun,  in  the  form  of  a  table,  show 
that  the  percentage  of  pupils  retained  in  the  schools  of 
Macomb  is  larger  than  the  percentage  for  the  entire 
State.  From  this  comparison  it  is  "unmistakably  plain 
that  the  Macomb  increases  have  been  considerably  in 
excess  of  the  general  increases  throughout  the  country."6 

Stetson  made  a  study  for  the  express  purpose  of 
determining  the  "holding  power"  of  the  junior  high 
school.  The  data  presented  by  this  writer  shows  a 
marked  increase  in  the  percentage  of  pupils  entering  the 
ninth  grade  in  the  schools  of  Grand  Eapids  after  the 
junior  high  school  had  been  established.  The  average 
percentage  of  pupils  retained  in  the  ninth  grade  for  the 
four  years  between  1907  and  1911,  had  been,  according 
to  figures  of  Stetson,  66.4  whereas,  during  the  following 
four  years  under  the  new  plan  of  organization  the  average 
percentage  was  87.0,  an  increase  of  20.6  per  cent.  Inter- 
preting the  table  in  which  he  presents  his  findings,  Stet- 
son states :  ' '  This  table  shows  conclusively  that  previous 
to  the  intermediate  type  of  organization  the  percentage 
of  students  who  remained  in  the  ninth  grade  was  steadily 
on  the  decline  and  that  a  smaller  percentage  was  held 


5.  Mangun,  Vernon  L.,  Some  Junior  High  School  Facts  Drawn  from 
Two  Years  of  the  6-6  Plan  at  Macomb,  III.  Elementary  School  Journal 
18;  598-617,  April,  1918.  , 

6.  Ibid.  p.  612. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        61 

over.  It  also  shows  that  as  soon  as  the  junior  high 
schools  were  organized  the  percentage  in  the  ninth  grade 
increased  steadily."7 

Probably  the  best  investigation  of  the  junior  high 
school  from  the  point  of  view  of  retaining  children  in 
school  is  that  conducted  by  Childs.5  Childs  states  his 
conclusion  in  these  words :  "  In  general,  it  is  not  apparent 
that  these  junior  high  school  data  justify  the  claim, 
commonly  made,  that  junior  high  schools  retain  a  higher 
per  cent  of  pupils  than  do  schools  in  the  non-junior  type 
in  the  grammar  and  high  school  grades.  The  data  do 
seem  to  justify  the  stated  aims  of  some  advocates  of 
reorganization,  viz.,  that  the  junior  type  school  makes  a 
superior  appeal  to  boys  as  compared  with  the  traditional 
organization."5 

The  amount  of  evidence  that  has  been  amassed  to 
demonstrate  the  holding  power  of  the  junior  high  school 
is  immense.  It  consists  chiefly  in  the  presentation  of 
comparative  statistics  and  the  opinions  of  superinten- 
dents or  principals  of  junior  high  schools  in  different 
places.  In  most  instances  the  principals  seem  to  consider 
the  new  institution  superior  to  the  old  in  its  power  to 
retain  children  in  school.  Some  frankly  stated,  they  did 
not  know;  others,  they  had  no  records  upon  which  they 
could  base  a  judgment ;  while  others  simply  did  not  answer 
the  question  at  -a\\.10  It  is  worthy  of  note,  however,  that 
less  than  half  (44.7)  of  the  principals  of  junior  high 
schools  in  the  North  Central  Association  territory  believe 
this  type  of  schools  improves  retention.11 


7.  Stetson,  Paul  C,  Statistical  Study  of  the  Junior  High  School  from 
the  Point  of  View  of  Enrolment.     School  Review,  pp.  233-245,  April,  1918. 

8.  Childs,  H.  G.,  An  Investigation  of  Certain  Phases  of  the  'Reorgani- 
zation Movement  in  the  Grammar  Grades  of  Indiana  Public  Schools. 

9.  Ibid.  p.  179. 

10.  Note:     For  figures  and  opinions  see  Briggs,  op.  cit.,  pp.  304-311 
and  Douglass,  op.  cit.,  pp.  102-109. 

11.  Davis,  C.  O.,  Junior  High  Schools  in  the  North  Central  Association 
Territory.    School  Review,  May,  1918. 


62  The  Junior  High  School 

It  is  certainly  true  that  more  children  have  remained 
in  school  for  a  longer  period  of  late  years  than  formerly, 
but  when  an  explanation  of  this  fact  is  sought  it  is  not 
so  certain  that  the  junior  high  school  alone  must  be 
credited  for  this  improved  condition.  As  noted  above, 
Douglass  attributes  the  improvement  to  a  number  of 
causes.  And  Koos^  remarks:  "When  we  examine  the 
factual  evidence  mustered  in  support  of  the  junior  high 
school  aiming  to  show  the  large  extent  to  which  this 
function  of  retaining  pupils  is  already  being  performed, 
we  find  much  material,  but  very  little  that  can  endure  the 
light  of  careful  thought." 

Closely  related  to  the  question  discussed  is  the  prob- 
lem of  retardation.  There  are  not  as  many  figures  avail- 
able, however,  on  this  problem  as  there  are  on  that  of 
elimination.  In  a  number  of  instances  children  have 
been  promoted  to  the  junior  high  school  who  have  not 
successfully  completed  the  work  of  the  elementary  school ; 
and  in  many  cases  this  method  of  procedure  has  been 
justified  by  the  good  results  that  followed.  An  illustra- 
tion is  found  in  the  report  of  Hilligas  on  the  junior  high 
schools  of  Vermont.  He  says :  "In  a  number  of  cases  we 
have  been  bold  enough  to  promote  stupid  boys  and  girls 
from  as  low  as  the  fifth  grade  directly  in  the  junior  high 
school.  Results  have  been  most  satisfactory.  In  one  of 
the  large  junior  high  schools  considerable  groups  of  such 
retarded  and  incompetent  boys  and  girls  were  thus  pro- 
moted. At  the  beginning  of  the  second  year  new  teachers 
in  the  school  were  unable  to  select  the  students  thus  ad- 
vanced."15 

Douglass14  endeavored  to  collect  data  that  would 
throw  some  light  on  the  effect  of  the  new  institution  on 


12.  Koos,  L.  V.,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  22,  Harcourt,  Brace  and 
Company,  New  York,  1921. 

13.  Hillingas,  Milo  B.,  Teachers  College  Record,  Vol.  19,  p.  343,  Sept., 
1918. 

14.  Op.  cit.,  pp.  110-113. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        63 

the  retardation  of  pupils.  The  figures  furnished  by  some 
schools  indicate  that  retardation  was  lessened,  while  in 
a  few  instances  it  was  shown  to  have  increased.  Less 
than  half  of  those  to  whom  the  questionnaire  was  sent 
answered  the  question  on  retardation,  and  a  number 
frankly  stated  that  they  were  unable  to  say  what  the  effect 
had  been.  In  view  of  the  replies  received  Douglass  con- 
cludes "The  chief  point  brought  out  is  that  the  junior 
high  school  is  not  a  sure  cure  for  this  problem;  but,  on 
the  contrary,  the  greatest  care  is  needed  to  protect  the 
young  pupil  from  a  departmentalized  school  where  re- 
quirements in  "high  school"  subjects  are  too  high,  or 
where  subject-matter  is  otherwise  poorly  presented  and 
where  the  individual  is  lost  sight  of.  If  these  obstacles 
are  overcome,  we  have  reason  to  believe  retardation  will 
be  reduced." 

Mangun15  presents  two  tables  designed  to  prove  that 
retardation  was  lessened  after  the  introduction  of  the 
new  institution.  He,  however,  does  not  give  any  account 
of  the  ways  and  means  by  which  this  improvement  was 
secured.  A  reproduction  of  these  tables  appears  to  be 
the  shortest  and  best  way  to  present  his  argument. 

Table  I 


No.  of  Pupils  Percentage 

Underage 

126                12.3 

Normal 

235                22.9 

Overage 

665                64.8 

1,026  100.00 

This  table  is  a  summary  of  the  age  grade  situation 
September,  1915.  It  shows  that  the  ratio  of  retarded 
pupils  to  accelerated  pupils  is  somewhat  more  than  5-1. 
The  following  table,  No.  II,  shows  the  situation  in  June, 
1917,  as  compared  with  the  situation  of  September,  1915. 

15.  Op.  tit.,  p.  610. 


64  The  Junior  High  School 


Table  II 

er  cent      Per  cent 

1915            1917 

12.3              25.85 

22.9              23.10 

64.8              51.05 

Per  cent  of 

Improvement 

13.55 

0.2 

13.75 

Underage 

Normal 

Overage 

Here  the  ratio  of  retarded  pupils  to  accelerated 
pupils  is  2-1  instead  of  5-1.  Mangun  attributes  this  im- 
provement to  reorganization,  and  he  furthermore  believes 
that  in  time  this  unsatisfactory  condition  can  be  entirely 
removed  by  providing  more  completely  for  individual 
differences  in  pupils  by  offering  varied  types  of  courses. 

A  problem  more  difficult  than  either  of  these  just 
mentioned  is  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  junior  high 
school  has  actually  produced  better  scholarship  than  the 
school  it  is  intended  to  supersede.  The  method  generally 
used  is  to  compare  the  standings  of  a  group  of  pupils 
who  have  attended  a  junior  high  school  with  the  stand- 
ings of  a  group  which  has  not.  Attempts  have  been  made 
in  this  manner  to  determine  as  accurately  as  possible 
whether  there  is  any  advantage  on  the  side  of  the  junior 
high  school  when  its  results  are  measured  in  terms  of 
academic  accomplishments.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the 
fact,  mentioned  before,  that  no  generally  accepted  stand- 
ards of  measurement  are  at  hand  by  means  of  which  the 
abilities  of  each  group  can  be  determined  for  the  com- 
parison. That  the  marks  given  by  teachers  are  unreliable 
is  well  known,  but  these,  for  the  most  part,  are  the  only 
means  available  upon  which  a  comparison  can  be  made. 
Opinions  of  those  who  have  had  experience  in  schools  of 
both  types  have  received  some  consideration  in  endeavor- 
ing to  reach  conclusions  in  this  matter.  These  opinions, 
too,  it  seems  reasonable  to  suppose,  are  based  to  a  great 
extent  upon  the  rating  given  a  pupil  by  his  teacher.  Com- 
parison of  the  two  groups  has  also  been  based  upon  the 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        65 

results  of  uniform  examinations  taken  by  these  students 
toward  the  end  of  their  course  in  the  senior  high  school. 

A  rather  careful  examination  of  the  results  of  the 
junior  high  school  organization  in  English  and  mathe- 
matics was  made  by  Stetson.16  In  this  study  one-half 
of  the  records  examined  were  those  of  students  who  had 
attended  the  junior  high  school  and  the  other  half  of 
those  who  had  completed  their  elementary  education  in 
the  traditional  school.  Each  student's  report  represents 
a  study  of  seven  years  of  his  public  school  life,  beginning 
with  the  sixth  grade.  Up  to  this  grade  all  of  the  404 
students  had  the  same  kind  of  school  training.  Further- 
more, in  the  selection  of  the  students  for  this  comparison 
care  was  taken  to  make  sure  that  they  were  comparable. 
The  results  of  the  comparison  show :  ' '  The  difference  in 
form  of  organization  to  have  had  little  influence  on  their 
scholastic  work  in  English."17  The  average  median  for 
the  junior  high  school  group  in  English  was  85.63  per  cent, 
and  for  the  non-junior  group  it  was  84.34  per  cent,  a 
difference  of  only  1.3  per  cent.  It  is  hardly  probable 
that  any  one  would  attempt  to  construct  an  argument  for 
the  new  institution  on  such  a  slight  difference. 

The  median  achievement  of  the  two  groups  in  mathe- 
matics shows  about  the  same  result,  except  that  the  small 
advantage  in  this  subject  was  found  to  be  in  favor  of  the 
non-junior  group.  As  far  as  this  study  is  concerned 
there  appears  to  be  no  ground  for  an  argument  in  behalf 
of  the  junior  high  school  from  the  point  of  view  of  pro- 
ficiency in  mathematics.  It  is  plain,  however,  that  in  both 
English  and  mathematics  the  work  in  the  junior  high 
school  is  as  well  done  as  it  is  in  the  ordinary  elementary 
school;  but  it  is  equally  apparent  that  students  are  no 
better  prepared  for  advanced  work  in  one  school  than  in 
the  other. 


16.  Statistical   Study   of  the   Scholastic  Be  cords   of  404  Junior  and 
Non- Junior  High  School  Students.    School  Beview,  25:  617-636,  Nov.,  1917. 

17.  Stetson,  op.  cit.,  p.  623. 


66  The  Junior  High  School 

Stetson  declares:  "In  view  of  the  foregoing,  one  is 
forced  to  the  conclusion  that  the  increased  cost  of  the 
intermediate  school  in  Grand  Rapids  from  the  point  of 
view  of  instruction  does  not  find  its  justification  in  better 
scholastic  work  in  the  senior  high  school." 

This  one  instance  is  not  sufficient  to  furnish  a  basis 
for  any  general  conclusion  regarding  the  scholarship  of 
pupils  educated  in  the  junior  high  schools.  Besides  it  is 
claimed  that  the  reorganization  in  Grand  Rapids,  during 
the  period  examined,  had  not  made  any  change  in  the 
curriculum.  With  the  exception  of  the  fact  that  Latin 
and  German  were  offered  as  electives  it  remained  the 
same  as  the  curriculum  of  the  regular  elementary  school.15 
Furthermore  Stetson  would  justify  the  junior  high  school 
in  Grand  Rapids  on  the  basis  of  the  ' '  intangible  results ' ' 
obtained  through  such  features  as  departmental  teach- 
ing, supervised  study,  grouping  of  pupils  for  social  activi- 
ties and  many  others. 

Practically  the  same  conclusion  was  reached  by 
Davis  in  his  study  of  the  reports  of  two  hundred  and 
seventy-one  pupils  who  had  graduated  from  the  Grand 
Rapids  high  school.  This  study  was  similar  to  that  of 
Stetson  in  this  that  approximately  one-half  of  the  records 
examined  were  those  of  pupils  who  had  been  prepared 
in  the  junior  high  school,  while  the  other  half  was  of 
students  who  had  received  their  education  in  the  ordinary 
elementary  school.  Although  there  is  no  marked  differ- 
ence between  the  two  groups  that  could  be  attributed  to 
their  preparation,  the  fact  that  Davis  found  the  slight 
difference  in  English  to  be  in  favor  of  the  non-junior 
group  seems  worthy  of  note. 

In  some  instances  high  school  pupils  who  have 
attended  a  junior  high  school  were  found  to  have  received 
higher  marks  in  high  school.  For  example  in  Cuba,  New 
York,  the  average  mark,  73.2  in  the  ninth  grade  rose  to 

18.  School  Survey  of  Grand  Eapids,  p.  215. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        67 

84.8  in  the  high  school.15  In  other  places  the  induction 
of  the  new  organization  was  followed  by  very  unsatis- 
factory results.  In  Los  Angeles,  for  instance,  it  was 
found  necessary  after  trial  to  demote  a  number  junior 
high  school  graduates  into  lower  grades.  Of  those  who 
were  permitted  to  remain  only  22  per  cent  received  marks 
as  high  as  in  their  preparatory  school.*0  Further  evi- 
dence is  furnished  in  opinions  of  superintendents  and 
teachers  to  indicate  the  uncertainty,  to  say  the  least,  of 
the  junior  high  schools'  success  in  producing  better 
scholarship  than  the  conventional  type  of  school.  In  the 
study  of  Briggs  just  referred  to,  high  school  teachers 
were  practically  agreed  in  thinking  that  the  children  from 
the  junior  high  schools  who  continued  their  electives 
were  not  adequately  prepared.  On  the  other  hand  Foster, 
superintendent  of  schools,  Danville,  N.  Y.,  states:  "That 
the  junior  high  school  has  not  interfered  with  the  work 
in  the  three  R's  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  the  percentage 
of  students  who  have  passed  the  Regents'  preliminary 
examinations  in  the  past  two  years  is  larger  than  during 
the  preceding  three  years.  The  work  done  in  the  first 
year  senior  high  school  is  of  a  higher  character  than  it 
was  before  the  inauguration  of  our  junior  high  school 
department."*1 

Another  argument  for  the  contention  that  the  junior 
high  school  secures  a  higher  degree  of  scholarship  is 
based  on  the  assumption  that  scholastic  proficiency  can  be 
measured  by  the  length  of  school  life.  But  even  if  this 
assumption  is  granted,  it  still  remains  true  that  the 
amount  of  credit  due  the  junior  high  school  for  this  con- 
dition will  be  the  same  as  is  due  it  for  the  retention  of 
children  in  school.    Now  it  is  generally  recognized  that 


19.  Ed.  Adm.  and  Super.,  Vol.  II,  p.  458. 

20.  Briggs,  Thos.  H.,  A  Study  of  Comparative  Besults  in  Intermediate 
and  Elementary  Schools  of  Los  Angeles.  Journal  of  Ed.  Research,  Novem- 
ber, 1920. 

21.  Quoted  from  Briggs,  The  Junior  High  School,  pp.  311-12. 


68  The  Junior  High  School 

a  number  of  factors  other  than  reorganization  have  con- 
tributed to  the  stay  of  children  in  school,  and  furthermore 
it  is  also  generally  recognized  that  no  means  exists  at  the 
present  time  by  which  it  would  be  possible  to  measure 
how  far  reorganization  is  responsible  for  this  condition. 
Neither  is  it  then  possible  to  determine  to  what  extent  the 
junior  high  school  has  contributed  to  increased  scholar- 
ship from  the  point  of  view  of  lengthening  the  school  life 
of  pupils. 

Uniform  examinations  have  proved  scarcely  any  more 
favorable  to  the  junior  high  school  than  the  other  means 
used  to  prove  its  superiority  in  obtaining  better  scholar- 
ship. This  method  of  discovering  the  effect  of  the  junior 
high  school  organization  on  scholarship  was  tried  in  New 
York  City.  In  June,  1917,  uniform  examinations  in 
Algebra,  Commercial  Arithmetic,  Latin,  French,  Spanish, 
and  German  were  given  to  a  number  pupils  in  junior 
high  schools  and  to  a  number  of  pupils  in  the  senior  high 
schools.  The  result  showed  that  31  per  cent  of  the  junior 
pupils  passed  in  algebra,  as  compared  with  69.5  per  cent 
high  school  pupils ;  in  commercial  arithmetic  34.5  to  54.8 ; 
in  Latin  45.9  to  63.6;  in  French  57.6  to  94.9;  in  Spanish 
18.5  to  60.8 ;  in  German  60.8  to  56.5.  Commenting  on  these 
results,  Tildsley  says:  "It  seems  to  me  that  this  failure 
to  do  good  work  is  due  in  large  part  to  the  attempt  to 
conduct  the  intermediate  schools  as  a  money-saving 
scheme,  and  to  the  fact  that  teachers  are  doing  this  work 
who  are  not  equipped  for  it,  and  to  the  further  fact  that 
the  work  has  not  been  supervised  by  the  principals  and 
heads  of  departments  with  the  thoroughness  and  ability 
with  which  this  supervision  is  done  in  the  high  schools."^ 

Passing  to  another  claim  of  the  junior  high  school, 
the  economy  of  time,  it  is  maintained  by  the  advocates  of 
this  institution  that  the  junior  high  school  will  save 
pupils  about  one  year  in  securing  an  education.    Statis- 

22.  Eeport  of  the  Superintendent  of  Schools  of  New  York,  1917,  p. 
124. 


M 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        69 

tical  evidence  to  demonstrate  this  claim  is  very  meagre. 
In  his  study  of  the  Los  Angeles  junior  high  schools, 
Briggs*5  found  some  evidence  that  a  little  time  was  saved 
by  intermediate  school  graduates.  The  more  gifted  and 
industrious  pupils  were  able  to  obtain  enough  high  school 
credits  to  save  one-half  year.  No  one  pupil  of  those 
studied  was  able  to  save  more  than  one  semester.  As  a 
group  not  even  a  half  year  was  saved.  Stetson  found 
that  time  was  saved  in  Grand  Rapids '  junior  high  school, 
through  promoting  pupils  by  subjects.  This  feature  of 
junior  high  schools  prevents  a  child  from  repeating  two 
or  three  subjects  when  he  failed  only  in  one,  thus  leaving 
time  for  some  new  work.  This  is  considered  economy  of 
time/4  Mangun,  in  the  article  referred  to  above,  men- 
tions that  economy  of  time  was  secured  by  promoting 
over-age  pupils  to  the  junior  high  where  they  were 
enabled  "to  work  to  their  full  capacity  in  a  congenial 
atmosphere ;"  through  the  plan  of  promoting  by  subject; 
and  by  granting  high  school  credits  to  pupils  for  work 
done  in  high  school  subjects  in  the  eighth  grade. 

In  some  places  one  of  the  direct  purposes  of  reor- 
ganization was  to  enable  children  to  save  time.  At 
Solvay,  N.  Y.,  for  instance  all  pupils  who  do  not  change 
their  courses  after  they  have  begun  high  school  work 
complete  it  in  five  years.  Unless  a  much  larger  number 
of  the  pupils  of  Solvay  continue  the  studies  elected  in 
the  lower  high  school  than  were  found  to  persevere  in 
their  first  choice  at  Los  Angeles,  very  few  will  be  able 
to  avail  themselves  of  the  opportunity  to  bring  their 
high  school  course  to  completion  in  five  years/5  A 
method  of  reorganization  whereby  pupils  who  completed 
the  six  years  high  school  would  have  done  the  work 


23.  A  Study  of  Comparative  Results  in  Intermediate  and  Elementary 
Schools  of  Los  Angeles,  Journal  of  Educational  Research,  Nov.,  1920. 

24.  Stetson,  Paul  C.,  Statistical  Study  of  the  Scholastic  Records  of 
404  Junior  and  Non-junior  High  School  Students.  School  Review,  pp.  617- 
36,  November,  1917. 

25.  Briggs,  The  Junior  High  School,  pp.  314-17. 


70  The  Junior  High  School 

assigned  to  the  first  year  of  college-  was  adopted  at  East 
Chicago,  Indiana.  According  to  Koos/6  many  school 
systems  have  saved  time  by  "Boldly  cutting  down  the 
twelve  year  period  to  eleven  for  the  normal  pupils.' ' 

In  studying  the  junior  high  school  from  the  point  of 
view  of  results  a  number  of  other  accomplishments  are 
mentioned  as  evidence  of  the  success  of  the  new  plan  of 
organization.  The  fact  that  no  system  which  has  been 
reorganized  along  the  lines  of  junior  high  school  theory 
has  returned  to  the  conventional  plan  nor  has  any  desire 
to  return  been  expressed  by  those  in  charge  of  these 
systems  is  considered  evidence  that  reorganization  has 
proven  satisfactory.  It  is  reported^7  that  the  junior  high 
plan  has  served  better  to  adjust  the  work  of  the  school 
to  the  children.  This  seems  to  justify  the  claim  of  pro- 
viding for  individual  differences.  Another  good  result 
attributed  to  reorganization  by  the  same  superintendent 
is  a  reduction  of  congestion  in  the  primary  grades.  A 
few  principals  and  teachers  whose  views  were  obtained 
regarding  results  of  reorganization  reported:  "a  more 
favorable  attitude  on  the  part  of  pupils,  probably  more 
favorable  than  ordinarily  obtains,  toward  further 
schooling ;"  "a  marked  improvement  in  discipline  in  the 
elementary  school  after  the  removal  of  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades;"  "better  opportunity  is  given  the  adoles- 
cent to  develop  and  express  his  individuality."  The 
very  common  adoption  of  departmental  teaching  in  the 
junior  high  school  is  frequently  presented  as  evidence 
that  the  results  which  are  expected  to  follow  departmen- 
talization have  actually  been  obtained  in  virtue  of  the 
new  institution.  Through  this  plan  of  teaching  oppor- 
tunity is  provided  for  students  to  come  into  contact  with 
many  teachers,  some  of  whom  are  men.     Furthermore 


26.  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  29. 

27.  Mangun,  Vernon  L.,  Some  Junior  High  School  Facts  Drawn  from 
Two  Years  of  the  6-6  Plan  at  Macomb,  III.  Elem.  School  Jour.,  pp.  598-617, 
April,  1918. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        71 

these  teachers  are  specialists,  who  are  qualified  to  give 
the  pupil  an  outlook  upon  their  particular  field  not  pos- 
sible in  the  one  teacher  plan.  Opinions  vary  so  much 
regarding  junior  high  school  costs  that  the  mention  by  a 
few  of  a  financial  saving  as  a  result  of  reorganization  is 
not  looked  upon  as  a  thing  to  be  expected  of  the  junior 
high  school  in  general.  Besides  reducing  elimination 
and  increasing  the  number  of  pupils  who,  after  com- 
pleting the  eighth  grade,  still  remain  in  school,  the  junior 
high  school,  according  to  Weets,  has  brought  about  "a 
much  saner  distribution  of  high  school  pupils.' ' 

Table  F* 

Distribution 

Under  old  plan  J.  H.  S.  plan 

Courses  per  cent  per  cent 

College  preparatory    66  33 

Commercial    27  33 

Industrial  and  Household  arts  7  34 

It  may  be  added  that  the  junior  high  school  has 
given  some  secondary  education  to  pupils  who  would  not 
have  entered  the  high  school.  Moreover,  through  election 
of  subjects  it  has  perhaps  convinced  those  who  did  not 
continue  their  choice  in  the  high  school  of  their  inapti- 
tude for  such  work. 

Two  letters  which  are  considered  typical  of  many 
received  by  Briggs*9  from  junior  high  school  principals 
in  widely  scattered  areas  of  the  country  may  be  quoted  as 
reflecting  the  sentiments  of  those  in  charge  of  these  insti- 
tutions relative  to  results.  The  first  of  these  letters 
states:  "Our  work  as  now  carried  on  is  more  interest- 
ing to  the  pupils,  and  therefore  we  are  holding  them  in 
school  longer.     My  belief  that  the  work  is  more  inter- 


28.  Weet,  Herbert  S.,  Proceedings  N.  E.  A.  1916,  pp.  1036-42. 

29.  Briggs,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  320. 


72  The  Junior  High  School 

esting  is  supported  by  the  statement  of  the  pupils.  In 
answer  to  the  question  whether  they  prefer  the  new 
plan  and  why,  90  per  cent  expressed  a  preference  for  the 
junior  high  school,  40  per  cent  giving  as  their  reason  the 
advantage  of  promotion  by  subject.  Two  other  reasons 
which  stood  out  were  the  opportunities  for  election  of 
subjects  and  the  fact  that  the  work  is  more  pleasant  when 
there  is  a  change  of  teachers  from  period  to  period.  Not 
one  of  us,  faculty  or  board  of  education  would  consider 
for  a  moment  going  back  to  the  old  plan."  (Ellenville, 
New  York.) 

The  second  letter  is  as  follows :  ' '  The  change  to  the 
junior  high  plan  has  had  a  wonderful  effect.  The  intro- 
duction of  new  subjects  and  a  revision  of  the  content  of 
the  old  with  a  modification  in  methods  of  teaching  have 
greatly  stimulated  the  children's  interest  in  school  work. 
There  has  been  greater  harmony  between  pupils  and 
teachers,  and  a  more  friendly  spirit  has  been  clearly 
evident.  Both  have  been  happy  in  their  work  and  much 
pleased  with  the  new  arrangement.  The  discipline  has 
been  easier,  and  undesirable  tension  has  been  approach- 
ing the  minimum  rapidly.  The  pupils  go  about  their 
work  in  much  more  business-like  way  and  are  more 
thoughtful  and  dependable.  They  have  learned  to  make 
a  better  use  of  their  study  periods,  and  the  lessons  are 
better  prepared.  With  this  has  come  an  increased  power 
of  initiative.  The  result  has  been  gratifying.  I  have 
taken  pains  to  question  both  my  corps  of  teachers  and 
the  pupils  concerning  this  new  arrangement  and  I  find 
the  answers  practically  unanimous  in  its  favor.  No 
teacher  wishes  to  go  back  into  the  regular  grade  work, 
and  the  pupils  express  themselves  as  much  pleased  at  the 
change. ' 93° 

From  the  foregoing  it  seems  safe  to  conclude  that 
it  is  not  possible,  at  the  present  time,  to  gather  data  on 


30.  Chelsea,  Mass. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        73 

the  different  results  which  could  be  designated  typical. 
This  conclusion  is  strengthened  by  the  willingness  of  the 
supporters  of  the  theory  themselves  to  admit  that  such 
evidence. as  has  been  mustered  together  relative  to  the 
results  obtained  in  existing  junior  high  schools  is  not 
entirely  satisfactory  or  conclusive.  But  they  object  to 
the  method  of  determining  the  value  of  the  theory, 
namely,  by  comparing  the  results  procured  in  so-called 
junior  high  schools  with  those  of  the  conventional  school. 
This  objection  rests  on  the  claim  that  very  few,  if  any, 
real  junior  high  schools  exist.1*1  Besides,  it  is  main- 
tained this  institution  has  not  been  in  existence  long 
enough  to  have  permitted  many  details  to  be  worked 
out,  which  experience  and  experiment  alone  can  evolve. 
Then,  too,  many  present  obstacles,  such  as  lack  of  quali- 
fied teachers,  proper  equipment,  and  satisfactory  build- 
ing accommodations,  must  be  removed;  many  superin- 
tendents and  principals  must  be  given  a  clear  idea  of 
the  aim  in  view,  of  the  true  spirit  of  the  movement,  and 
of  the  necessity  of  a  definite  policy  when  planning  the 
the  establishment  of  a  junior  high  school. 

This  objection  is  not  aimed  at  the  above-mentioned 
criterion  of  judging  theories,  but  at  the  attempt  to  judge 
this  particular  theory  by  results  obtained  in  institutions 
that  do  not  include  all  the  requirements  of  the  theory. 
In  other  words  the  final  test  of  the  junior  high  school 
must  be  the  results  gained  in  a  school  in  which  all  the 
essential  features  are  provided  and  in  which  they  are 
administered  in  a  manner  designed  to  achieve  the  de- 
sired results. 

The  supporters  of  the  junior  high  school  theory, 
while  admitting  the  institution  is  still  in  the  develop- 
mental stage,  are  convinced  that  the  thoroughgoing 
junior  high  school,  once  it  is  established,  will  produce 
expected  results.    For  they  no  longer  entertain  any  doubt 


31.  Koos,  L.  V.,  op.  cit.,  p.  26. 


74  The  Junior  High  School 

relative  to  the  soundness  of  the  theory  or  its  workability. 
It  is  taken  for  granted  by  many  that  the  theory  has  been 
generally  accepted  by  the  educators  of  the  country. 
According  to  Ballou,  superintendent  of  schools,  District 
of  Columbia,  there  is  no  longer  any  serious  discussion 
of  this  question.  The  educational  profession  of  the 
country  has  accepted  the  junior  high  school  plan.  And 
Briggs^  declares :  ' '  The  arguments  for  a  reorganiza- 
tion of  secondary  education  so  as  to  provide  some  form 
of  junior  high  school  are  now  generally  accepted  as 
sound.  The  broad  discussion  and  debate  at  teachers' 
meetings  and  in  educational  magazines  a  few  years  ago 
have  given  place  to  questions  concerning  the  means  of 
securing  the  best  reorganization  of  the  school  system 
both  as  a  whole  and  in  its  details.' ' 

The  statistical  data  and  opinions  of  superintendents, 
principals  and  teachers  cited  in  this  chapter  at  least 
indicate  that  particular  junior  high  schools  have  pro- 
duced better  results  than  the  traditional  school.  This 
augurs  well  for  the  new  institution,  especially  when  it 
is  remembered  that  none  of  these  schools  has  been  com- 
pletely reorganized  according  to  the  junior  high  school 
theory.  When  the  concensus  of  opinion  of  many  eminent 
educators  is  considered  in  connection  with  actual  results 
indicative  of  the  possibilities  of  a  fully  developed  junior 
high  school,  the  result  is  a  strong  argument  in  favor  of 
thorough  reorganization. 

32.  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  322 


X 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        75 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  JUNIOR  HIGH  SCHOOL  IN  THE  CATHOLIC 
SCHOOL  SYSTEM 

The  movement  to  add  a  new  institution  to  the 
existing  ones  in  the  educational  system  in  this  country — 
an  institution  which  shall  find  its  place  between  the 
elementary  school  and  the  high  school — has  already 
passed  through  the  stages  of  academic  discussion  and 
that  of  the  consideration  of  working  plans.  It  is  now  a 
fact.  Although  this  institution  has  not  yet  taken  final 
form,  the  laborious  task  has  begun  of  working  out,  detail 
by  detail,  its  specific  purposes  and  the  means  by  which 
these  purposes  are  to  be  accomplished.  The  junior  high 
school  has  been  adopted  and  is  now  on  trial.  While  its 
advocates  are  convinced  that  the  junior  high  school 
theory  is  both  sound  and  workable,  the  future  alone  can 
settle  this  question.  The  purpose  of  this  chapter  is  to 
discuss  the  feasibility  of  the  junior  high  school  in  the 
Catholic  school  system. 

Whether  education  beyond  the  grades  should  be  pro- 
vided for  all  children  is  no  longer  an  open  question.  The 
recent  enactment  of  compulsory  education  laws,  requiring 
children  to  attend  school,  either  full  or  part  time,  up  to 
their  sixteenth  year  and  in  some  instances  until  the 
eighteenth  year,  together  with  the  change  in  public 
opinion  regarding  secondary  education  for  the  masses 
have  practically  settled  this  matter.  "It  is  no  longer  a 
question  of  whether  or  not  children  should  be  given  a 
high  school  education,  but  rather  a  question  of  where 
they  should  receive  it."1  The  trend  of  Catholic  educa- 
tional discussion  in  the  annual  reports  of  the  Catholic 


1.  Flood,  Rev.  John  E.,   The  Catholic  Educational  Review,  Vol.   XX, 
No.  2,  p.  66,  Feb.  1922. 


76  The  Junior  High  School 

Educational  Association,  and  the  efforts  put  forth  in  the 
past  few  years  to  establish  Catholic  high  schools  indicate 
quite  clearly  that  the  Church  intends  to  provide  her  chil- 
dren with  the  advantages  of  a  secondary  education  with- 
out exposing  them  to  the  manifold  dangers  to  faith  that 
exist  in  non-catholic  high  schools. 

If  all  children  are  to  receive  a  secondary  education, 
or  at  least  be  given  the  opportunity  to  receive  a  high 
school  training,  it  is  evident  that  the  school  must  provide 
the  different  courses  which  the  various  classes  of  chil- 
dren need.  A  high  school  that  offers  nothing  more  than 
the  college  preparatory  course  may  be  willing  to  accept 
any  child  who  desires  to  enter  it,  but  it  is  not  offering 
equal  opportunity  to  all.  In  other  words  the  same 
opportunity  is  not  equal  opportunity.  The  high  school 
must  take  into  consideration  the  future  life  work  of  the 
child  and  assist  him  in  so  far  as  it  is  possible  to  prepare 
for  the  particular  field  of  activity  in  which  he  expects  to 
earn  his  livelihood,  contribute  his  share  to  society,  and 
work  out  his  salvation.  The  high  school  of  today  then 
has  a  twofold  purpose,  namely,  to  prepare  for  college 
those  children,  who  will  have  the  opportunity  to  continue 
their  education  and  to  qualify  the  others  to  take  their 
place  in  the  world.  The  problem  is  to  determine  the  kind 
of  school  organization  that  will  best  serve  this  purpose. 

There  are  two  leading  views  today  relative  to  the 
school  and  the  accomplishment  of  its  purposes.  The  one 
maintains  the  necessity  of  a  complete  reorganization,  an 
entirely  new  arrangement  of  our  educational  forces ;  the 
other  holds  that  the  existing  system  of  organization  if 
properly  administered  is  well  able  to  satisfy  all  demands 
that  may  reasonably  be  made  on  the  school.  The  weight 
of  authority,  and  reason,  if  some  fundamental  assump- 
tions are  accepted,  seem  to  favor  the  first  opinion. 
Furthermore  practice  appears  to  be  gradually  conform- 
ing to  the  proposed  plan  of  reorganization,  in  so  far  at 
least  as  the  State  schools  are  concerned.    There  are  one 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        77 

or  more  junior  high  schools  in  every  State  in  the  United 
States,  but  as  far  as  could  be  ascertained  no  Catholic 
system  has  introduced  the  new  organization. 

The  problem  that  confronts  Catholic  educators  in 
regard  to  the  junior  high  school  seems  to  be:  Should 
this  institution  be  adopted  in  the  Catholic  system  and  is 
its  adoption  feasible?  The  first  question  to  be  solved 
is:  Are  the  purposes,  which  the  junior  high  school  is 
expected  to  realize,  desirable  from  a  Catholic  point  of 
view  and  are  they  such  as  the  school  may  reasonably  be 
expected  to  accomplish?  Should  investigation  show  these 
purposes  to  be  desirable  and  their  realization  a  proper 
function  of  the  school,  it  still  remains  to  be  determined 
whether  the  junior  high  school  is  capable  of  accomplish- 
ing them;  whether  it  is  the  most  economical  plan  of 
organization;  and  whether  it  is  the  best  plan?  The 
second  question  to  present  itself  is:  Is  the  junior  high 
school  feasible  in  the  Catholic  system  involves  a  num- 
ber of  important  administrative  considerations. 

The  ends  to  be  attained  by  the  junior  high  school  are 
without  doubt  very  desirable.  But  it  is  not  so  certain 
that  the  school  should  be  held  responsible  for  the  realiza- 
tion of  all  these  purposes.  There  are  other  agencies 
which  must  bear  a  share  in  the  work  of  guiding  the  child 
to  the  perfection  of  manhood.  As  noted  elsewhere,  how- 
ever, the  responsibilities  of  the  school  have  necessarily 
been  increased  through  the  great  industrial,  economical 
and  social  changes  of  comparatively  recent  years. 

Most  educators,  however,  consider  the  aims  of  the 
junior  high  school  to  fall  properly  within  the  scope  of 
the  school's  work. 

Apart  from  this  aspect  of  the  question  it  is  certainly 
the  most  natural  thing  in  the  world  to  seek  a  remedy  for 
any  recognized  defect  in  the  school.  The  accumulative 
argument  set  forth  to  prove  the  existence  of  a  number 
of  defects  in  the  present  plan  of  school  organization 


78  The  Junior  High  School 

leaves  no  doubt  that  some  repair  work  must  be  done  or 
some  new  parts  must  be  procured  to  replace  those  that 
no  longer  respond  to  apparent  needs. 

Under  the  existing  plan  of  organization  more  time 
is  consumed  than  ought  to  be  necessary  for  the  results 
obtained.  Catholic  educators  seem  to  be  fairly  agreed  in 
admitting  this  defect  of  the  eight-four  plan.  Indeed, 
some  leading  Catholic  educators  believe  that  elementary 
education  can  be  completed  in  six  years.  "With  better 
teaching"  says  Bishop  McDevitt,  "with  proper  condi- 
tions in  our  schools,  smaller  classes,  and  a  longer  school 
term,  the  work  that  is  now  done  in  eight  years,  and  done 
sometimes  badly,  can  be  done  well  in  six  years.  Two 
years  of  school  life  can  thus  be  saved  for  higher 
studies/  '*  Brother  John  Waldron,  treating  of  doing  the 
work  proper  to  the  elementary  school  in  six  years,  writes : 
"In  many  dioceses  and  especially  where  there  is  excel- 
lent and  effective  supervision,  it  can;  but,  frankly  said, 
in  some  schools  it  cannot  be  done,  as  long  as  certain 
obstacles  are  there  to  impede  the  work.  "5  At  the  con- 
vention of  the  Catholic  Educational  Association  held  in 
New  Orleans  in  1913,  Msgr.  Howard  strongly  defended 
a  six  year  elementary  course  in  a  paper  entitled,  "The 
Problem  of  the  Curriculum. ' '  And  in  1919  the  same 
matter  was  discussed  by  Fr.  Henry  S.  Spaulding,  S.  J. 
He  believes  absolutely  in  a  six  year  elementary  school. 
He  declared  that:  "While  the  printed  records  of  their 
opinions  and  discussions  may  not  be  many,  I  wish  to 
state  that  Catholic  educators  have  for  the  last  thirty 
years  or  more  been  decrying  this  jumble  of  educational 
methods."4 


2.  Cited  from  Burns,  J.  A.,  Catholic  Education,  p.  80.  Longmans, 
Green  and  Company,  New  York,  1917. 

3.  Waldron,  Bro.  John,  "How  many  grades  should  there  oe  in  the 
elementary  school?"  Ann.  Report  Catholic  Educational  Association,  1910, 
Vol.  VII,  p.  290. 

4.  "Readjustment  of  the  Time  Element  in  Education."  Ann.  Report, 
C.  E.  A.  1919,  p.  82. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        79 

Granting  that  too  much  time  is  given  to  elementary 
education,  what  then  is  the  remedy!  Now  it  must  be 
remembered  that  the  centre  of  attack  has  been  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades  of  the  elementary  school.  However, 
theoretical  discussion  will  never  determine  the  amount 
of  time  necessary  for  the  acquisition  of  an  elementary 
education.  Indeed  it  is  not  possible  for  all  children  to 
attain  the  same  standard  in  the  same  number  of  years. 
For  practical  purposes  it  seems  essential  to  adopt,  at 
least  tentatively,  some  definite  standard  of  elementary 
school  requirements.  Several  such  attempts  have  been 
made.5  When  some  standard  shall  have  been  accepted, 
actual  trial  alone  will  or  can  determine  the  amount  of 
time  the  normal  child  will  require  for  its  attainment.  In 
so  far  as  this  one  question  of  saving  time  is  concerned, 
it  is  difficult  to  see  the  necessity  of  an  entirely  new  insti- 
tution. 

The  causes  of  this  prodigal  expenditure  of  time  are 
attributed  to  poor  teaching,  poor  text-books,  and  the 
presence  in  the  curriculum  of  a  large  amount  of  non- 
essential matters.  The  proper  remedy  for  any  defect  is 
to  remove  its  cause  or  causes.  In  this  instance,  better 
preparation  of  teachers,  provision  of  text-books  that  are 
designed  according  to  the  best  known  methods,  and  a 
careful  study  of  the  content  of  the  curriculum  with  the 
view  of  eliminating  all  non-essential  subjects  or  partic- 
ular portions  of  subjects  appear  to  be  the  logical  method 
of  procedure.  So,  too,  the  so-called  "fads  and  frills ' ?  and 
"odds  and  ends"  can  surely  be  dropped  without  the 
establishment  of  an  entirely  new  institution.  Merely  to 
cut  off  two  grades  from  the  eight  years  now  given  to 
elementary  education  and  to  transfer  the  children  to  a 


5.  Lyttle,  E.  W.,  Should  the  Twelve  Year  Course  of  Study  be  Equally 
Divided  Between  the  Elementary  School  and  the  Secondary  School?  Pro- 
ceedings, N.  E.  A.,  1905,  pp.  428-36.  Also  Cleveland  Eeport  on  the  Six 
Year  Course  of  Study,  Proceedings,  N.  E.  A.,  1908,  pp.  627-28.  And 
Howard,  Rt.  Rev.  Francis  W.,  "The  Problem  of  the  Curriculum."  Ann. 
Report  C.  E.  A.,  Vol.  X,  pp.  132-47,  1913. 


80  The  Junior  High  School 

new  institution  styled  the  junior  high  school  would  prob- 
ably result  in  a  condition  similar  to  the  one  caused  by 
tacking  a  four  year  high  school  course  on  to  an  eight 
year  elementary  course.  The  reorganization  of  the 
elementary  school  must  take  place  before,  or  at  least 
simultaneously  with  earlier  entrance  into  high  school 
work. 

If  we  assume  the  soundness  of  the  psychological 
grounds  upon  which  it  is  claimed  that  differentiation  of 
work  must  begin  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  year  in  school  or 
at  about  the  twelfth  year  of  the  child's  life,  some  other 
form  of  organization  than  we  now  have  seems  to  be  ne- 
cessary; for,  as  Briggs  states,  "even  the  beginning  of 
differentiation  is  impossible  in  the  usual  elementary 
school.' '6  While  it  is  beyond  the  scope  of  this  treatise 
to  consider  the  psychological  aspect  of  the  question,  it 
may  be  noted  that  the  adolescent  period  of  life  begins 
earlier  for  girls  than  for  boys,  and  that  it  is  not  reached 
by  all  individuals  of  the  same  sex  at  the  same  age.  The 
demand  for  differentiation  in  work  at  the  age  of  twelve 
based  on  the  psychology  of  adolescence  does  not  rest  on 
a  certain  argument.  There  are  other  arguments,  how- 
ever, that  urge  differentiation  at  the  end  of  the  sixth 
school  year. 

The  unduly  large  number  of  children  who  leave 
school  at  the  end  of  the  sixth,  seventh  and  eighth  grades 
is  believed  to  be  owing,  in  no  small  measure,  to  lack  of 
provision  on  the  part  of  the  school  to  meet  the  particular 
needs  of  these  children.  Even  the  few  who  expect  to  con- 
tinue their  education  through  high  school  and  college  are 
detained  unnecessarily  long  in  elementary  work.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  children  destined  to  enter  upon  their 
life's  vocation  at  the  close  of  their  elementary  school 
course  find  nothing  in  the  present  seventh  and  eighth 
grades  that  appeals  to  them  as  essential  or  even  advan- 
tageous.   This  at  least  indicates  the  urgency  of  provid- 

6.  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  17. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        81 

ing  offerings  in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades  that  will 
meet  the  needs  of  such  children.  When  both  children 
and  their  parents  are  convinced  that  the  school  is  pre- 
pared properly  to  care  for  their  natural  abilities,  inter- 
ests and  capacities,  and  that  the  school  will,  in  the  long 
run,  do  them  more  good  than  immediate  ^ntrance  into 
some  haphazardly  chosen  occupation,  far  more  children, 
no  doubt,  will  give  more  time  to  education.  But  the  mere 
retention  of  children  in  school  is  not  in  itself  an  asset. 
There  is  danger  that  anxiety  to  prolong  the  school-life 
of  all  children  will,  under  the  guise  of  a  false  doctrine 
of  interest,  result  in  catering  to  the  caprices  and  whims 
of  some  of  them  to  such  an  extent  as  unwittingly  to  en- 
courage loose,  lazy  habits  of  work,  and  at  the  same  time 
to  develop  unstable,  wavering,  superficial  characters. 
Unless  the  child  profits  by  his  stay  in  school,  he  is  better 
off  at  work.  There  are  many  children  undoubtedly 
engaged  in  occupations  of  one  kind  or  another  who  would 
have  been  of  greater  benefit  both  to  themselves  and  to 
society  had  they  received  a  better  education,  or  rather 
had  the  school  provided  the  kind  of  education  their 
individual  needs  demanded. 

Another  fact  seems  to  support  the  contention  that 
differentiation  should  begin  earlier.  The  large  amount 
of  retardation  is  certainly  due  in  part  to  lack  of  proper 
regard  for  the  individual  differences  in  children.  It  is 
a  waste  of  time,  money  and  energy  to  have  children 
repeat  work  for  which  they  are  evidently  not  qualified. 
Then,  too,  different  courses  will  be  a  powerful  aid  in 
discovering  different  capacities,  tastes,  interests  and 
abilities,  and  enabling  pupils  to  make  a  more  reasonable 
choice  of  a  vocation  and  of  a  preparatory  high  school 
course.  No  scale  of  measurement  has  yet  been  invented 
by  which  the  amount  of  retardation  obviated  by  the 
junior  high  school  can  be  determined.  Nevertheless  the 
conviction  is  strong  in  the  minds  of  many  educators  that 
it  merits  some  credit  for  improvement  in  this  respect. 


82  The  Junior  High  School 

Nor  will  the  school  be  able  to  discover  the  different  ca- 
pacities of  the  child  to  an  extent  that  will  result  in  infal- 
lible guidance  toward  the  correct  vocation.  But  surely 
it  will  be  far  better  able  to  direct  the  child,  after  testing 
his  abilities,  than  such  agencies  as  the  street,  child  com- 
panions, and  advertisements  in  newspapers  and  maga- 
zines. No  one  will  deny  the  desirability  of  differentiated 
work  in  so  far  as  it  will  contribute  to  the  reduction  of 
elimination  and  retardation  and  in  so  far  as  it  will  con- 
tribute to  better  preparation  of  children  for  their  life's 
work. 

While  statistics  are  not  available  to  show  the  exact 
amount  of  retardation  and  elimination  in  our  Catholic 
schools,  the  similarity  of  our  system  with  that  of  the 
State  would  naturally  lead  us  to  expect  the  existence  of 
both  these  defects.  Dr.  McCormick,  who  examined  the 
statistics  available  in  1911,  said:  "It  would  appear 
from  the  data  we  possess  for  our  Catholic  school  system, 
that  both  classes  of  children  (retarded  and  eliminated) 
are  with  us  to  an  alarming  extent. '  '7  In  addition  to  the 
defects  just  mentioned,  retardation  and  elimination,  it 
must  also  be  recognized  that  there  is  no  more  provision 
for  individual  differences  in  our  Catholic  schools  than 
in  the  usual  eight-four  plan. 

The  junior  high  school  will  undoubtedly  provide 
conditions  for  better  teaching.  Under  this  plan  large 
numbers  of  children  of  approximately  the  same  age  are 
gathered  together  in  the  same  building,  and  this  fact 
permits  a  classification  as  homogeneous  as  possible. 
Evidently  the  nearer  alike  the  children  of  each  class  are 
in  capacity,  ability  and  acquired  experience,  the  easier 
the  task  of  the  teacher  in  furthering  their  education. 
With  a  group  of  this  type  any  teacher  should  obtain 
better  results  than  are  possible  in  the  ordinary  eight 
grade  elementary  school.    Better  conditions  for  teaching, 


7.  Ann.  Beport  C.  E.  A.,  Vol.  VIII,  p.  328    (1911). 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        83 

all  other  things  being  equal,  and  a  higher  degree  of 
scholarship  on  the  part  of  the  pupils  will  certainly  result 
from  better  teaching. 

Some  remedy  for  the  crowded  conditions  of  our 
schools  is  an  urgent  necessity.  It  is  most  unreasonable 
to  expect  any  teacher  to  do  justice  to  every  individual 
in  a  class  of  100,  or  80,  or  even  70  children.5  Such  a 
condition  is  not  only  an  evil  in  itself,  but  a  contributory 
cause  to  other  evils  of  the  schools;  retardation,  poor 
scholarship,  and  untimely  elimination.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  congestion  is  an  evil,  and  the  purpose  to 
remedy  it  most  worthy  of  consideration  and  action.  The 
junior  high  school,  an  entirely  new  institution,  may  not 
be  the  only  cure  for  this  particular  malady  of  the  elemen- 
tary school,  but  it  is  one  cure. 

Besides  relieving  congestion,  the  segregation  of  chil- 
dren in  the  adolescent  period  of  life  is  intended  to  provide 
conditions  in  which  discipline,  suited  to  their  peculiar 
needs,  may  be  more  easily  maintained.  This  aim  in  itself 
is  undoubtedly  good,  for  the  child  can  hardly  come  to  a 
proper  appreciation  of  personal  responsibility  unless  he 
is  gradually  made  to  rely  upon  himself.  Now  the  diffi- 
culty of  obtaining  even  "Passable  behavior  on  the  part 
of  boys  and  girls  in  the  upper  grades  of  our  eight-year 
elementary  schools  ...  is  a  matter  of  common  knowl- 
edge. The  struggle  is  often  so  arduous  that  there  is 
evidence  that  sometimes  the  primary  consideration  in 
selecting  teachers  for  and  assigning  them  to  these  grades 
is  the  ability  to  police,  rather  than  to  instruct."5  On  the 
other  hand,  "it  can  hardly  be  denied  that  in  this  field 
(providing  for  the  transition  from  total  dependence  upon 
the  teacher  to  dependence  on  self)  the  junior  high  school 
is  achieving  one  of  its  most  marked  successes."^  Fur- 
thermore conditions  of  discipline  are  not  only  bettered 

8.  Note:     The  existence  of  such  conditions  in  our  schools  is  reported 
in  a  letter  from  the  superior  of  one  of  the  large  teaching  communities. 

9.  Koos,  L.  V.,  The  Junior  High  School,  pp.  72-73. 

10.  Briggs,  T.  H.,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  247. 


84  The  Junior  High  School 

for  the  adolescents,  but  marked  improvement  has  also 
resulted  in  the  elementary  schools  from  which  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades  had  been  removed. 

While  we  do  not  believe  the  discipline  in  our  Catholic 
schools  is  such  a  difficult  problem  even  in  the  seventh  and 
eighth  grades,  there  probably  is  reason  to  question  the 
desirability  of  maintaining  the  kind  of  discipline  suitable 
to  childhood  in  these  grades.  None  of  us,  it  is  true,  ever 
become  entirely  independent  of  authority,  still  there  is  a 
difference  between  the  dependence  on  authority  on  the 
part  of  the  child  and  that  of  the  adult.  From  childhood 
to  manhood,  there  should  be  a  gradual  decrease  in  this 
dependence  and  a  gradual  increase  of  self-reliance. 
Whether  this  transition  can  be  accomplished  under  our 
present  form  of  organization  is  a  question.  In  the  past, 
it  seems  safe  to  say,  it  has  not  been  accomplished.  On 
the  other  hand,  if  the  results  experienced  in  State  junior 
high  schools  are  indicative  of  what  may  be  expected  of 
Catholic  junior  high  schools,  there  is  reason  to  believe 
that  much  may  be  hoped  for  in  respect  of  proper  disci- 
pline by  establishing  them  in  the  Catholic  system. 

The  necessity  of  vocational  education  at  an  earlier 
age  is  another  problem  that  has  received  considerable 
attention  in  connection  with  the  junior  high  school.  The 
term,  vocational  education,  is  taken  in  its  generic  sense 
and  includes  trade  training,  vocational  guidance,  pre- 
vocational  training  and  avocational  training.  There  are 
a  few  instances  in  which  trade  training  might  reasonably 
be  defended  in  the  junior  high  school,  but  these  instances 
are  the  exception  rather  than  the  rule.  Besides  the 
danger  of  arrested  development  in  too  early  specializa- 
tion, it  seems  impractical  to  provide  the  large  amount 
of  equipment,  space  and  special  teachers  necessary  for 
training  in  particular  trades,  in  view  of  the  very  small 
number   of   pupils   that   would   take   up    each   trade.11 

11.  Lutz,  E.  R.,  Wage  Earning  and  Education,  Cleveland  Foundation 
Survey. 


>' 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        85 

Adverting  to  the  fact  that  in  a  junior  high  school  of 
1,000  boys  and  girls,  there  would  probably  be  only  five 
boys  who  are  likely  to  become  compositors,  Lutz  says, 
"The  expense  for  equipment,  for  the  space  it  occupies, 
and  for  instruction  renders  special  training  for  such 
small  classes  impracticable."^  Vocational  guidance, 
general  pre-vocational  education  and  some  sort  of  train- 
ing that  will  assist  the  pupil  in  the  proper  use  of  leisure 
time  are  generally  accepted  as  proper  functions  of  the 
junior  high  school.  Catholic  educators  we  believe,  might 
well  subscribe  to  these  purposes  as  desirable  if  not 
entirely  necessary  functions  of  the  school.  It  is  true 
that  at  the  age  of  twelve  the  average  pupil  has  very 
restricted  ideas  regarding  his  future  and  a  very  incom- 
plete conception  of  the  different  vocations.1*  If  he  has 
made  a  choice — and  this  would  seem  to  be  true  of  chil- 
dren even  two  or  three  years  older — he  is  usually  unable 
to  give  any  intelligent  reason  for  the  choice  made. 
Nevertheless,  at  the  age  of  twelve  children  might  well 
be  instructed  regarding  the  necessity  of  choosing  a  future 
occupation  and  given  such  knowledge  and  help  as  will 
serve  them  in  making  a  choice  when  the  proper  time 
arrives. 

There  are  a  number  of  other  purposes  commonly 
ascribed  to  the  new  plan  of  organization,  but  examina- 
tion of  the  literature  on  the  subject  shows  clearly  that 
none  of  them  receives  the  frequent  consideration  of  those 
already  mentioned.  Since  all  these  less  frequently  men- 
tioned aims  are  to  be  realized  through  the  same  features 
as  the  more  commonly  mentioned  aims,  we  shall  pass  on 
to  a  consideration  of  these  features.  In  this  respect  the 
most  frequently  mentioned  and  certainly  the  most  com- 
mon factor  in  practice,  is  departmental  teaching.  Many 
arguments  have  been  offered  in  support  of  this  method  of 
teaching  in  the  grades  which,  properly,  belong  to  the 


12.  Op.  cit.,  pp.  48-49. 

13.  Lewis,  Ervin  E.,  WorTc,  Wages  and  Schooling  of  800  Iowa  Boys. 


86  The  Junior  High  School 

junior  high  school.  A  number  of  the  identical  arguments 
have  been  advanced  in  opposition  to  it.  For  instance,  it 
is  claimed  that  departmental  teaching  will  result  in  in- 
creased interest  and  consequently  in  better  work  on  the 
part  of  the  pupils,  while  others  maintain  the  result  will 
be  confusion  of  the  pupils.  The  chief  danger  of  depart- 
mental teaching  in  grades  seven  and  eight  is  that  the 
individual  will  not  receive  the  personal  attention  he 
needs.  Observations  made  in  a  number  of  schools  in 
which  this  method  prevails  indicate  a  tendency  to  lose 
track  of  the  individual.  Furthermore  the  demand  for  a 
system  of  personal  advisers  is  a  mark  of  the  weakness 
of  departmentalization.  Then,  too,  if  the  change  from 
the  one  teacher  plan  to  the  many  teacher  plan  at  the  end 
of  the  eighth  grade  is  too  abrupt  and  consequently  bad, 
what  is  to  be  thought  of  such  a  change  at  the  end  of 
the  sixth  grade !  There  are  no  data  or,  at  least,  not  suffi- 
cient data  as  to  results  that  permit  an  accurate  measure- 
ment of  the  value  of  departmentalization.  While  some 
form  of  partial  departmental  teaching  seems  imperative 
in  a  fully  equipped  junior  high  school,  we  believe  full 
departmentalization  is  a  mistake.  The  formation  of  the 
child's  character  requires  that  he  receive  considerable 
personal  attention  at  the  age  of  twelve  or  thirteen.  It 
seems  quite  possible  to  work  out  a  plan  of  partial  depart- 
mental teaching  for  seventh  and  eighth  grade  pupils  in 
which  every  class  will  be  responsible  to  one  teacher  and 
one  teacher  responsible  for  every  child  in  his  or  her  class. 

Promotion  by  subject  is  a  feature  of  the  junior  high 
school  calculated  especially  to  reduce  both  retardation 
and  elimination.  It  is  a  means  of  giving  the  pupil  credit 
for  work  done  in  each  subject  and  of  avoiding  the  neces- 
sity of  repeating  work  creditably  finished  on  account  of 
failure  in  one  or  two  branches.  There  may  be  some 
difficulty  in  certain  instances  in  arranging  the  program 
of  studies,  especially  where  the  number  of  pupils  in  the 
same  grade  is  small,  but  the  advantages  promised  by  this 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  Syst 


em 


plan  of  promoting  seem  to  warrant  its  adoption.  The 
practice  of  promoting  by  subject,  though  not  yet  univer- 
sal, is  rather  common  in  junior  high  schools.14 

Systematic  supervision  of  the  pupil's  study  will 
serve  the  very  important-  purpose  of  teaching  him  how 
to  study  and  at  the  same  time  will  prevent  no  little  waste 
of  time.  Moreover,  it  will  aid  the  teacher  greatly  in 
recognizing  individual  differences  in  the  pupils.  There 
is  no  apparent  reason  to  differ  with  the  gradually  in- 
creasing tendency  to  favor  this  mode  of  classroom  proce- 
dure. It  is  considered  most  desirable.  Details  in  prac- 
tice show  a  wide  variation,  especially  in  regard  to  the 
amount  of  time  that  should  be  given  to  supervised  study. 
But  here  again  final  settlement  of  details  must  wait  upon 
the  findings  of  experience  and  careful  experimentation. 

The  most  important  feature  of  the  junior  high  school 
relative  to  the  realization  of  its  purposes  is  the  large 
number  of  pupils  of  approximately  the  same  school 
standing  that  are  gathered  together  in  one  building. 
Differentiated  courses — the  means  of  discovering  indi- 
vidual differences  as  well  as  providing  for  them — seem 
to  be  impracticable,  to  say  the  least,  in  the  ordinary  ele- 
mentary school  where  there  are  comparatively  few  chil- 
dren in  the  seventh  and  eighth  grades.  Furthermore 
large  numbers  are  essential  for  homogeneous  classifica- 
tion— the  chief  means  of  providing  for  better  teaching 
and  consequently  better  scholarship.  Moreover  economy 
of  administration  depends  on  the  full  use  of  the  school 
equipment  and  of  the  time  of  special  teachers.  The 
expense  of  providing  for  the  simplest  kinds  of  manual 
training  would  seem  to  be  prohibitive  in  a  school  in  which 
there  are  only  fifty  or  sixty  boys  in  the  seventh  and  eighth 
grades.  The  same  is  true  of  the  equipment  necessary 
for  the  teaching  of  domestic  science.  In  a  word  a  large 
body  of  pupils  is  the  very  foundation  of  the  junior  high 
school. 


14.  Briggs,  T.  H.,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  154. 


88  The  Junior  High  School 

The  purposes  of  the  junior  high  school  are  such,  we 
believe,  as  will  receive  the  approval  of  all  Catholic  edu- 
cators. There  may  be  room  to  question  some  of  the 
means  by  which  the  junior  high  school  is  attempting  to 
achieve  these  purposes.  Some  may  not  admit  that  all 
these  purposes  belong  properly  to  the  school,  while  others 
may  still  be  convinced  that  all  of  them  can  be  attained 
in  the  traditional  plan  of  organization,  if  it  is  properly 
administered.  It  is,  however,  beyond  the  scope  of  this 
treatise  to  enter  further  into  the  theoretical  discussion. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  junior  high  school  plan  has 
been  widely  accepted  as  the  best  means  of  attaining  the 
purposes  generally  accepted  as  proper  aims  of  the  school 
of  a  democracy.  And  even  though  it  is  impossible  to 
show  that  the  results  obtained  by  schools  of  this  type 
already  in  existence  are  all  that  was  expected,  still  there 
is  a  certain  general  satisfaction  with  this  institution  and 
evident  signs  that  it  is  being  adopted  by  more  and  more 
systems. 

It  is  beyond  assumption  to  say  that  the  junior  high 
school  can  be  introduced  in  the  Catholic  system,  if  the 
proper  authorities,  our  bishops,  pastors  and  educational 
leaders  decide  that  it  will  improve  the  quality  of  Catholic 
education.  In  the  past  the  church  has  never  failed  to 
give  her  children  an  education  that  properly  prepared 
them  for  the  social,  economic  and  political  conditions  of 
their  time.  So  today  we  have  no  doubt  the  church  will 
meet  all  the  conditions  necessary  to  give  her  children 
the  kind  of  education  that  is  essential  to  prepare  them 
for  the  present  peculiar  conditions  of  life.  There  are 
however  a  number  of  obstacles  in  the  way  of  introducing 
the  junior  high  school  into  the  Catholic  school  system. 
These,  however,  cannot  fail  to  yield  to  the  united  efforts 
of  our  devoted  clergy,  self-sacrificing  religious  men  and 
women,  and  ever  faithful  laity. 

Before  setting  forth  what  is  believed  to  be  a  work- 
able plan  for  the  introduction  of  the  junior  high  school 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        89 

into  the  Catholic  system,  it  is  deemed  necessary  to  state 
what  the  writer  believes  to  be  the  essential  features  of 
this  new  institution.  It  must  be  noted  that  certain  local 
conditions  will  make  a  large  number  of  modifications 
imperative.  The  rural  junior  high  school  will  necessarily 
differ  in  some  respects  from  the  junior  high  school  in  the 
town,  or  small  city.  In  the  large  cities  this  institution 
will  provide  opportunities  not  possible  in  smaller  com- 
munities. And  even  in  large  cities  the  different  local 
conditions  will  probably  call  for  some  variations  in 
organization.  For  these  reasons  it  is  proposed  to  offer 
only  a  general  outline  of  the  features  of  this  school. 

The  junior  high  school  is  a  separate  division  of  the 
educational  system  functionally  related  to  the  elemen- 
tary school  on  the  one  hand  and  to  the  high  school  on  the 
other,  to  provide  properly  for  the  peculiar  needs  of  adol- 
escent children.  The  purposes  of  this  school  require 
some  differentiation  of  work,  promotion  by  subject, 
supervised  study,  especially  prepared  text-books,  and 
some  form  of  partial  departmentalization.  These  fea- 
tures in  turn  demand  a  building  suitably  constructed  and 
properly  equipped;  a  large  student  body,  which  should 
include  children  of  the  seventh,  eighth  and  ninth  grades, 
and  in  some  instances  the  tenth;  an  efficient  principal 
and  a  qualified  staff  of  teachers. 

Assuming  then  the  necessity  of  reorganization  in 
the  Catholic  school  system  and  that  the  junior  high 
school  plan  is  the  best  available,  we  suggest  the  following 
plan  for  its  establishment : 

Any  plan  by  which  this  institution  is  to  be  estab- 
lished in  the  Catholic  system  must  provide  for  a  school 
unit  larger  than  the  parish.  This  requirement  can  be 
met  by  uniting  two,  three  or  more  parishes,  as  conditions 
demand,  into  a  junior  high  school  unit  of  administra- 
tion. This  will  not  interfere  in  the  least  with  the  parish 
elementary  school.  It  will  of  course  reduce  the  number 
of  grades  and  consequently  the  number  of  children  in 


90  The  Junior  High  School 

these  schools,  but  this  should  be  an  advantage  in  view 
of  the  crowded  conditions.  When  the  size  of  the  district 
has  been  determined  by  the  number  of  Catholic  children 
in  a  given  territory,  the  school  should  be  located  as  cen- 
trally as  circumstances  will  allow — in  such  a  way  if  pos- 
sible that  no  child  will  have  more  than  two  miles  to  travel 
to  school.  This  distance  is  a  little  greater  than  Spaul- 
ding's15  standard  for  the  maximum  distance  for  pupils 
to  travel,  but  it  is  believed  that  Catholic  parents  and 
children,  too,  will  readily  recognize  the  difficulties  of 
providing  schools  of  this  type  in  a  small  area,  especially 
if  the  Catholics  are  few,  and  that  they  will  readily  make 
the  little  sacrifice  demanded  in  the  interests  of  religious 
education.  The  chief  consideration  in  the  formation  of 
these  districts  is  to  obtain  an  attendance  of  from  400 
to  600  pupils.  Opinions  differ  on  this  question,  it  is  true, 
and  practice  varies  still  more.  Nevertheless  it  seems 
many  advantages  of  this  form  of  organization  must  be 
missed  if  the  number  is  smaller,  while  on  the  other  hand, 
if  it  is  larger  the  work  of  the  principal,  the  unifying  agent 
of  the  school,  can  hardly  be  properly  attended  to. 

The  grounds  should  be  ample  for  the  amount  of  out- 
door work  to  be  done  and  for  proper  recreation.  Different 
estimates  have  been  made  relative  to  the  amount  of 
ground  necessary,  but  finally  local  possibilities  must 
determine  this  matter.  The  building  of  course  must 
conform  to  standard  requirements  in  the  matter  of 
light,  heat,  ventilation,  floor  space  per  pupil,  fire  protec- 
tion, etc.,  etc.  But  in  addition  to  these  standard  require- 
ments, the  junior  high  school  building  should  have  a 
kitchen  for  domestic  science  work,  a  work  room  for 
manual  training,  a  gymnasium  and  swimming  pool,  an 
auditorium  for  social  affairs,  and,  in  cases  where  it  is 


15.  Superintendent  Spaulding  thinks  that  a  distance  not  exceeding  one 
mile  is  desirable  for  children  of  junior  high  school  age,  and  that  the  maxi- 
mum distance  should  not  exceed  one  and  one-half  miles.  Cited  from 
Briggs,  T.  H.,  The  Junior  High  School,  p.  271. 


»' 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        91 

not  in  the  immediate  vicinity  of  a  church,  a  chapel.  The 
same  space  might  readily  be  used  as  chapel  and  audi- 
torium, provided  the  building  is  constructed  with  this 
intention  in  mind. 

The  problem  of  obtaining  teachers  for  junior  high 
schools  has  been  and  still  is  a  most  important  consider- 
ation. In  the  Catholic  system  the  teachers  now  occupied 
with  seventh  and  eighth  grade  work  would  be  the  most 
available.  The  experience  these  teachers  have  had,  sup- 
plemented with  a  special  course  on  the  junior  high  school, 
including  a  general  treatment  of  its  purposes,  the  means 
by  which  they  are  expected  to  be  accomplished,  the 
psychology  of  adolescence,  and  junior  high  school 
methods,  would  furnish  our  schools  with  teachers  at 
least  equal  to  those  in  the  State  junior  high  school,  pro- 
vided, of  course,  they  have  had  adequate  academic 
training.  This  arrangement  would  not  call  for  more 
teachers.  In  some  instances,  as  a  consequence  of  equal- 
izing the  number  of  pupils  in  each  class,  consolidation 
might  result  in  a  saving  of  teachers.  The  chief  difficulty 
in  this  respect  seems  to  be  the  securing  of  male  teachers 
for  junior  high  schools  in  our  system.  The  shortage  of 
religious  in  practically  all  the  teaching  brotherhoods  is 
only  too  well  known.  The  discussions  and  suggestions  in 
the  meetings  of  the  Catholic  Educational  Association  on 
ways  and  means  of  fostering  vocations  for  the  teaching 
orders  leave  no  doubt  that  many  more  teachers  are 
needed  even  under  present  conditions.^  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  sufficient  vocations  to  the  religious  life  exist, 
for  "God,  assuredly,  in  His  unfailing  providence,  has 
marked  for  the  grace  of  vocation  those  who  are  to  serve 


16.  Proceedings  C.  E.  A.  1920,  p.  217,  "The  Need  of  Beligious  Vo- 
cations for  the  Teaching  Orders.  Hayes,  D.  D.,  Rev.  Ralph  L.,  Ibid.  p.  485. 
Vocations  for  the  Beligious  Life.  A  Sister  of  Holy  Cross,  Notre  Dame, 
Ind.  Hid.  1921,  p.  301.  On  Vocations  to  the  Teaching  Brotherhoods. 
Saner.     Brother  George  N.,  S.  M. 


92  The  Junior  High  School 

Him  as  His  chosen  instruments. '  n7  It  remains  for  all 
responsible  for  the  direction  of  the  young  to  make  use  of 
all  the  means  suggested  by  those  who  have  carefully 
studied  the  question  of  vocations  to  the  teaching  orders 
and  then  we  may  be  sure  there  will  be  no  shortage  of 
teachers  for  our  schools.  "It  lies  with  us,"  continues 
the  Pastoral  Letter,  "to  recognize  these  vessels  of  elec- 
tion and  to  set  them  apart,  that  they  may  be  duly 
fashioned  and  tempered  for  the  uses  of  their  calling." 
All  "who  have  the  care  of  souls,"  parents  and  teachers, 
are  "charged"  by  the  bishops  "to  note  the  signs  of 
vocation,  to  encourage  young  men  and  women  who  mani- 
fest the  requisite  dispositions,  and  to  guide  them  with 
prudent  advice."*5 

Then,  too,  the  difficulty  of  securing  men  teachers 
may  be  overcome  to  some  extent  by  enlisting  the  services 
of  some  of  our  young  priests.  We  believe  there  are  many 
who  would  find  delight  in  school  work;  some,  given  the 
opportunity  for  professional  training,  would  make  excel- 
lent principals  of  either  junior  or  senior  high  schools; 
others  might  prefer  classroom  work.  Almost  all  assistant 
priests  or  curates  could  find  a  few  hours  during  the  week 
that  could  be  devoted  to  the  school  with  great  profit  to 
themselves  as  well  as  to  the  cause  of  Catholic  education. 
If  this  future  work  in  the  school  were  kept  in  mind  by 
those  who  are  responsible  for  the  preparation  of  candi- 
dates for  the  priesthood  both  in  the  minor  and  major 
seminaries,  at  the  end  of  his  course  the  newly  ordained 
would  certainly  be  well  prepared  academically  for 
teaching.  And  it  should  not  be  impossible  to  devise  a 
plan,  should  our  bishops  deem  it  advisable,  whereby  all 
priests  who  are  to  engage  in  school  work  would  be  per- 
mitted to  spend  one  year,  at  least,  at  the  Catholic  Uni- 


17.  Pastoral  Letter  of  the  Archbishops  and  Bishops  assembled  in 
Conference,  September,  1919,  p.  28.  The  N.  C.  W.  C,  Washington,  D.  C, 
1920. 

18.  Ibid.  pp.  28-29. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        93 

versity  where,  we  believe,  a  course  offering  the  necessary 
professional  training  would  be  gladly  given  by  the  uni- 
versity authorities. 

In  the  standard  junior  high  school,  each  grade  will 
be  divided  into  three,  four  or  even  five  classes,  composed 
of  pupils  as  nearly  equal  as  possible.  The  same  sub- 
jects should  be  required  in  each  class,  but  the  course 
should  be  limited  in  such  a  way  regarding  time  as  to 
permit  some  elective  subjects.  These  electives,  it  is  be- 
lieved, should  be  arranged  in  groups  on  the  basis  of  the 
possible  future  occupations  of  the  children.  The  child's 
elementary  school  record,  his  own  desires,  the  wishes  of 
his  parents,  and  the  opinion  of  his  former  teachers  may 
be  made  the  basis  for  determining  the  elective  course  he 
is  to  follow.  Since  this  choice  cannot  be  more  than  ten- 
tative, it  should  be  possible  for  any  child  to  change  at  the 
end  of  each  semester.  This  arrangement  will  serve  the 
two-fold  purpose  of  testing  each  child's  capacity  for  a 
particular  vocation  and  of  giving  him  a  general  view  of 
the  many  different  occupations  in  which  men  are  engaged. 
In  each  course  actual  experience,  as  far  as  possible, 
should  be  added  to  the  verbal  instruction  on  the  require- 
ments for  the  particular  vocation. 

The  chief  considerations  in  the  formation  of  the 
curriculum  of  the  junior  high  school  are  to  determine  the' 
subjects  that  will  be  taught  and  which  shall  be  required 
or  elective.  The  value  of  a  subject  in  achieving  the 
ultimate  and  proximate  ends  of  education  depends  prin- 
cipally upon  the  matter  treated  and  the  method  of  pre- 
senting it.  The  subjects  that  are  of  general  necessity  for 
social  integration  and  welfare,  for  individual  culture,  and 
for  continued  training  in  the  fundamental  processes 
should  be  obligatory.  In  addition  to  the  required  sub- 
jects different  groups  of  electives  will  provide  general 
basic  courses  leading  to  a  professional,  an  industrial,  an 
agricultural,  or  a  commercial  career.  A  domestic  instead 
of  an  industrial  arts  course  should  be  offered  for  girls. 


94  The  Junior  High  School 

Furthermore  a  number  of  extra-curricular  or  social  ac- 
tivities will  be  a  great  benefit  to  all  pupils. 

The  detailed  planning  of  time  schedules  and  the 
assignment  of  work  to  the  teachers  will  require  careful 
study  and  considerable  experimentation.  In  general  one 
teacher  may  be  expected  to  handle  the  courses  in 
Religion,  English,  and  the  social  studies  in  the  seventh 
and  eighth  grades.  This  teacher  should  be  known  as  the 
class  teacher  and  should  be  made  responsible  for  each 
pupil  of  his  class  in  all  phases  of  the  pupil's  school  life. 
Mathematics,  industrial  arts,  domestic  science,  general 
science  and  the  languages,  though  required  subjects,  are 
of  such  a  nature  that  they  will  demand  special  teachers. 
The  elective  courses  will  necessarily  require  more  special- 
ized work  and  hence  special  teachers.  This  plan  will 
provide  better,  it  is  believed,  for  the  symmetrical  devel- 
opment of  the  child  than  the  one  teacher  for  every  sub- 
ject plan.  It  will  also  make  better  provision  for  proper 
correlation  of  work,  and  at  the  same  time  avoid  the 
danger  of  too  early  specialization.  At  the  same  time 
the  child  by  coming  into  contact  with  different  teachers 
in  his  elected  course  will  be  gradually  introduced  to  the 
departmental  method.  Furthermore  the  fact  that  some 
of  the  studies  found  in  the  elective  courses  are  properly 
secondary  school  subjects  will  serve  to  bridge  the  so- 
called  gap  between  the  present  elementary  school  and 
the  high  school.  The  pupils  who  have  passed  through  a 
junior  high  school  of  this  type  will  be  prepared  to  enter 
upon  the  work  of  the  senior  high  school  with  as  much 
ease  as  they  pass  from  one  grade  to  another  in  the  lower 
schools.  This  condition  should  prove  to  be  a  remedy  for 
the  undue  pupil  mortality  at  the  end  of  the  first  high 
school  year. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  treat  of  the  spirit  that  should 
guide  the  religious  teacher  or  the  motives  that  should 
bring  forth  whole-hearted  interest  in  his  work.  All  our 
teachers  have  received  ample  preparation  in  this  respect. 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        95 

Bound  by  sacred  vows  freely  taken  to  obey  their 
superiors,  they  readily  appreciate  the  necessity  of  ac- 
cepting and  cooperating  with  the  plans  laid  down  by  the 
principal  under  the  instruction  of  the  diocesan  superin- 
tendent. Since  their  motives  in  entering  a  teaching  order 
are  the  highest  that  can  actuate  a  teacher,  viz.,  the  love 
of  God  and  the  spiritual  and  temporal  welfare  of  chil- 
dren, they  seek  no  earthly  reward  but  look  forward  to 
that  eternal  reward  promised  by  Him  Who  knows  all 
things.  We  may  therefore  reasonably  expect  that  every 
such  teacher  will  give  the  very  best  that  is  in  him. 

The  administration  of  all  junior  high  schools  should 
be  in  the  hands  of  the  diocesan  school  board.  The  execu- 
tive officer  of  the  board,  the  diocesan  superintendent, 
should  have  the  same  direction  of  these  schools  as  he  has 
of  the  elementary  and  senior  central  high  schools.  And 
the  position  of  the  pastor  relative  to  the  parochial  school 
might  be  filled  by  a  committee  composed  of  all  pastors 
whose  parishes  have  been  consolidated  into  a  junior  high 
school  unit  of  administration.  The  management  of  the 
school  and  the  entire  work  of  supervision  should  be  left 
in  the  hands  of  the  principal,  who,  it  is  understood,  will 
work  in  harmony  with  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
diocesan  superintendent.  The  principal  should  be  free 
to  devote  his  entire  time  to  supervision  and  administra- 
tion and  not  be  hampered  in  the  exercise  of  these  duties 
by  any  obligation  of  teaching.  This  of  course  may  not 
always  be  possible  in  practice  but  it  is  ideal  and  should 
be  aimed  at  in  all  instances. 

There  are  assuredly  many  obstacles  which  must  be 
removed  before  this  or  any  other  junior  high  school  plan 
can  become  a  reality  in  the  Catholic  school  system.  The 
chief  difficulties  seem  to  be  the  location  of  the  building, 
obtaining  the  necessary  finances,  and  the  securing  of 
qualified  teachers.  The  internal  arrangement  of  the 
school,  determining  the  courses  of  study,  selecting  text- 
books, arranging  a  time  schedule  and  many  other  details, 


96  The  Junior  High  School 

though  by  no  means  an  easy  task,  may  well  be  left  to  the 
knowledge  and  good  judgment  of  the  superintendent  and 
his  advisers.  These  matters  can  always  be  changed  when 
more  definite  knowledge  is  obtained  through  experimen- 
tation and  experience. 

The  most  serious  obstacle  will  be  securing  a  site  for 
the  building  that  will  permit  a  sufficiently  large  number 
of  children  to  attend  the  school  without  having  to  travel 
too  great  a  distance.  In  some  places  this  difficulty  may 
necessitate  a  special  plan  and  even  a  sacrifice  of  some 
advantages  of  the  organization.  But  as  noted  above  in 
most  instances,  it  seems  safe  to  say,  Catholic  parents 
will  readily  realize  that  the  inconvenience  of  distance 
is  not  to  be  compared  to  the  advantages  their  children 
will  receive  in  getting  a  sound  religious  training  at  the 
same  time  that  their  other  educational  needs  are, cared 
for  in  a  much  better  manner  than  is  possible  without 
consolidation  of  our  educational  forces. 

It  is  generally  conceded  that  the  cost  of  the  junior 
high  school  will  be  greater  than  the  cost  of  the  elementary 
school.  This  does  not  mean  the  attainment  of  the  same 
educational  proficiency  will  cost  more  under  the  new 
plan.  In  fact  it  has  been  demonstrated  that  under  the 
junior  high  school  plan  of  organization  a  training  in 
every  way  comparable  with  that  obtainable  under  the 
eight-four  system  can  be  secured  at  less  expense.15  The 
purpose  of  the  junior  high  school  is  to  provide  a  better 
education.  This  obviously  will  entail  a  greater  expendi- 
ture of  money.  If  our  schools  are  to  survive,  Catholic 
children  must  be  given  in  addition  to  their  religious 
training  as  good  a  preparation  for  their  lives  here  below 
as  they  can  obtain  in  the  State  schools.  Our  Catholic 
people  upon  whom  the  financial  burden  of  the  school 
must  finally  rest  have  never  failed  to  support  every 
worthy  cause  in  the  past  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
that  now  and  in  the  future  they  will  willingly  supply  the 

19.  Briggs,  T.  H.,  "The  Junior  High  School,"  p.  84. 


> 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        97 

necessary  money  to  provide  their  children  with  the  kind 
of  education  demanded  by  present  social  conditions.  Be- 
sides it  has  been  shown  that  by  providing  their  own 
schools,  our  people  have  actually  been  obliged  to  spend 
less  money  than  would  be  the  case  if  all  our  children 
were  educated  in  the  State  schools.  This  of  course  is 
due  to  the  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  our  devoted  religious 
teachers  whose  salaries  are  far  less,  sometimes  only 
about  1/6  as  much  as  teachers  in  State  schools  receive. 
While  this  new  type  of  school  will  necessitate  an  in- 
creased expenditure,  there  is  no  doubt  that  our  people, 
once  convinced  their  children  will  benefit  in  proportion 
to  the  outlay,  will  supply  the  funds  for  it. 

CONCLUSION 

Reorganization  of  the  State  school  system  in  accor- 
dance with  the  junior  high  school  theory  is  taking  place 
rapidly  in  all  parts  of  the  country.  "It  is  not  improbable 
that  five  years  may  see  its  inclusion  in  the  majority  of 
the  schools  of  the  country.  Prof.  Davis,  of  Ann  Arbor, 
has  investigated  the  junior  high  schools  in  the  North 
Central  Association  territory,  1917-18,  and  has  found  that 
about  one-fourth  (2,931)  of  the  accredited  schools  of  the 
region  contained  this  form  of  organization,  and  that 
about  one-sixteenth  (72)  had  been  organized  in  1917. 
The  year  1918,  Prof.  Davis  believes,  will  show  an  even 
greater  increase.  It  is  believed  that  the  growth  in  the 
region  for  which  he  reports  is  typical  of  the  whole  coun- 
try."^ From  conversation  with  the  superintendent  of 
schools,  and  the  principal  of  the  junior  high  school  of 
the  District  of  Columbia;  a  teacher  in  the  junior  high 
school  in  Holyoke,  Massachusetts ;  and  through  communi- 
cation with  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  in  Racine, 
Wisconsin,  the  writer  is  informed  that  in  these  and  other 


20.  Report   of  the   U.    S.  Commissioner   of   Education   for   the   Year 
Ending  June  30,  1918,  p.  41. 


98  The  Junior  High  School 

places  plans  are  crystallizing  for  the  construction  of  one 
or  more  buildings  especially  adapted  to  junior  high 
school  purposes.  It  seems  safe  to  conclude  in  view  of 
these  conditions  that  the  junior  high  school  plan  of  or- 
ganization is  destined  in  time  to  supplant  the  system 
now  in  use. 

In  the  past  the  organization  of  our  schools  closely 
resembled  the  organization  of  the  secular  schools,  and 
this  condition  was  not  always  a  matter  of  choice.  In 
spite  of  the  fact  that  many  Catholic  authorities  long  ago 
thought  the  eight-four  plan  unsound,  "yet  they  decided 
to  submit  to  the  force  of  circumstances  and  adopt  a  plan 
that  was  in  harmony  with  the  public  educational  sys- 
tem."^1 In  pointing  out  the  similarity  between  our 
schools  and  the  public  schools,  Dr.  Howard  remarks,  "The 
eighth  grade  elementary  system  has  been  generally 
adopted  in  this  country,  and  our  parish  schools  have  from 
necessity  conformed  with  it."**  There  is  no  reason  to 
question,  we  believe,  that  our  schools  must  conform  in  a 
general  way  at  least  with  the  State  schools.  Now  that 
the  State  schools  have  begun  to  work  out  a  plan  of  re- 
organization which  substantially  harmonizes  with  the 
views  of  many  Catholic  educators  relative  to  sound  peda- 
gogical principles  and  that  the  Church  has  undertaken  to 
provide  secondary  education  for  all  her  children,  the 
time  seems  opportune  for  a  reorganization  of  our  schools 
on  these  same  principles. 


21.  Spaulding,  S.  J.,  Rev.  H.  S.,  Readjustment  of  the  Time  Element  in 
Education,  C.  E.  A.  Proceedings,  1919,  p.  83. 

22.  C.  E.  A.  Proceedings,  1913,  p.  137. 


> 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System        90 

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4 — "The  Training  of  Teachers  for  Intermediate 

Schools."  Stacy,  C.  R.,  pp.  448-55. 

5 — "The  Six  and  Six  Plan  of  Organization  for 

the  Small  School."    Park,  F.  R.,  pp.  456-60. 

6 — "The  Course  in  Mathematics  in  the  Junior 

School."    Taylor,  E.  H.,  pp.  461-65. 

High  School  Teachers'  Association  of  New  York,  "The 

Junior  High  School."    Bulletin,  Jan.,  1916.,  No.  59. 

Hood,  W.  R.,  "Junior  and  Senior  High  Schools."   Report 


102  The  Junior  High  School 

of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  1912,  Vol.  I, 
pp.  153-56. 

Horn,  P.  W.,  "The  Jwiior  High  School/'  Ohio  Educa- 
tional Monthly,  March,  191$,  pp.  94-96. 

Judd,  Chas.  H.,  "The  Junior  High  School  Grows  in 
Favor."  Eeport  of  the  U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Edu- 
cation, 1913,  Vol.  I,  pp.  72-74. 

"The  Junior  High  School."     School  Review, 

April,  1916,  pp.  249-60. 

Kandel,  I.  L.,  "The  Junior  High  School  in  European 
Systems."  Educational  Review,  Nov.,  1919,  pp. 
303-27. 

Eoos,  L.  V.,  "The  Junior  High  School."  Harcourt, 
Brace  &  Co.,  N.  Y.,  1921. 

"The  Peculiar  Functions  of  the  Junior  High 

Schools:  Their  Relative  Importance."  School  Re- 
view, Nov.,  1920,  pp.  673-81. 

Mangum,  Vernon  L.,  "Some  Junior  High  School  Facts 
Drawn  from  Ttvo  Years  of  the  Six-and-Six  Plan  at 
Macomb,  111."  Elementary  School  Journal,  April, 
1918,  pp.  598-617. 

Rorem,  S.  0.,  "What  is  a  Junior  High  School?"  Junior 
High  Clearing  House  (Sioux  City,  Iowa),  March, 
1920,  pp.  11-14. 

Smith,  W.  A.,  "Junior  High  School  Practices  in  Sixty- 
four  Cities."  Educational  Administration  &  Super- 
vision, March,  1920,  pp.  139-49. 

Stetson,  Paul  C,  "Statistical  Study  of  the  Scholastic 
Records  of  404  Junior  and  N on- Junior  High  School 
Students."     School  Review,  Nov.,  1917,  pp.  617-36. 

Stetson,  Paul  C./'A  Statistical  Study  of  the  Junior  High 
School  from  the  Point  of  View  of  Enrollment." 
School  Review,  April,  1918,  pp.  233-45. 

Wescott,  Ralph  Wells,  "A  Junior  High  School  Cate- 
chism." Journal  of  Education,  Nov.,  27th,  1919,  pp. 
535-37. 


s> 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System      103 

Special  Features 

Baker,  James  H.,  "Report  of  the  Committee  of  the 
National  Council  of  Education  on  Economy  of  Time 
in  Education."  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin, 
1913,  No.  38. 

Briggs,  T.  H.,  "A  Study  of  Comparative  Results  in  Inter- 
mediate and  Elementary  Schools  of  Los  Angeles." 
Journal  of  Educational  Research,  Nov.,  1920,  pp. 

Dunney,  Joseph  A.,  "Departmental  Instruction  in  the 
Intermediate."  Catholic  Educational  Association, 
Proceedings  of  the  17th  Annual  Meeting,  New  York, 
1920,  pp.  296-312. 

Edgerton,  A.  H.,  "Experimental  Work  in  Junior  High 
Sellout  Industrial  Arts."  Industrial  Arts  Magazine, 
July,  1919,  pp.  251-55. 

Faulkner,  R.  P.,  "Retardation:  Its  Significance  and 
Requirements."  Educational  Review,  Sept.,  1909, 
pp.  122-31. 

Finch,  C.  E.,  "Junior  High  School  Study  Tests."  School 
Review,  March,  1920,  pp.  220-26. 

Fitzgerald,  W.  J.,  "Differentiation  in  the  Curriculum  of 
flte  Grammar  Grades:  Viewpoint  of  the  Junior 
High  School."  Catholic  Educational  Association 
Proceedings,  16th  Ann.  Meeting,  St.  Louis,  1919,  pp. 
100-114. 

Hines,  H.  C,  "Supervised  Study  in  the  Junior  High 
School."  School  and  Society,  Nov.  3, 1917,  pp.  518-22. 

Kirkpatrick,  Lee,  "Factors  Which  Control  Curriculum 
Making  in  the  Junior  High  School."  Southern 
School  Journal,  Jan.,  1921,  pp.  9-12. 

Lewis,  Ervin  E.,  "The  Curriculum  of  the  Junior  High 
School."  Midland  Schools,  Nov.,  1918,  pp.  91-92. 

Mackie.  Ransom  A.,  "Education  During  Adolescence." 
E7  P.  Dutton  &  Co..  N.  Y.,  1920. 

McCormick,  P.  J.,  "Retardation  and  Elimination  of 
Pupils    in    Our    Schools."      Catholic    Educational 


104  The  Junior  High  School 

Association,  Proceedings  of  the  8th  Ann.  Meeting, 
Chicago,  1911,  pp.  326-36. 

McGuire,  J.  W.,  "Prevocational  Training."  Catholic 
Educational  Association.  Proceedings  of  the  14th 
Ann.  Meeting,  Buffalo,  1917,  pp.  239-51. 

Stetson,  Paul  C,  ''The  Curriculum  of  the  Junior  High 
School."  Vocational  Association  of  the  Middle  West. 
Proceedings,  1916,  pp.  130-35. 

Schuetz,  Brother  John,  "Entrance  Requirements  for  the 
Junior  High  School."  Catholic  Educational  Associ- 
ation, Proceedings  of  the  16th  Ann.  Meeting,  St. 
Louis,  1919,  pp.  362-72. 

Wetzel,  W.  A.  "The  Vocational  Try-out  in  the  Junior 
High  School."  National  Association  of  Secondary 
School  Principals.  Third  Year-Book.  Published  by 
the  Association,  1920,  pp.  37-43. 

Whitney,  Frank  P.,  "Choosing  a  Vocation  in  Junior  High 
School."    Education,  Oct.,  1919,  pp.  120-25. 

Yeske,  L.  A.  "Helping  Pupils  to  Discover  Their  Apti- 
tudes." Catholic  Educational  Association,  Proceed- 
ings of  the  12th  Ann.  Meeting,  St.  Paul,  1915,  pp. 
302-12. 

In  Particular  Places 

Bunker,  F.  Forest,  "A  Plan  for  the  Reorganization  of 
the  Schools  at  Berkeley"  (Cal.).  Sierra  Educational 
News,  Dec,  1909,  pp.  13-19. 

Detroit,  Michigan,  "Handbook  of  the  Detroit  Junior  High 
Schools."    Board  of  Education,  1916-17. 

"Evansville  Junior  High  School,  The."  Educator- 
Journal,  Dec,  1911,  p.  219. 

Glass,  J.  M.,  "Results  of  the  First  Year's  Work  at 
Washington  Junior  High  School,  Rochester,  N.  Y." 
New  York  State  University  Convocation,  Proceed- 
ings, 1916,  pp.  105-24. 

Gould,    Arthur,      "The    Intermediate    Schools    of   Los 


> 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System      105 

Angeles."    School  Review,  June,  1920,  pp.  419-35. 
Hines,  L.   N.,  "The  ' Six-and-Six'  Plan  in  the  Public 

Schools    of    Crawfordsville,    Indiana."      American 

School  Board  Journal,  Feb.,  1912,  p.  14. 
Horn,  P.  W.,  "The  Junior  High  School  in  Houston, 

Texas."    Elementary  School  Journal,  Oct.,  1915,  pp. 

91-95. 
Lyman,  R  L.,  "The  Ben  Blewett  Junior  High  School  of 

St.  Louis."    School  Review,  Jan.,  1920,  pp.  97-111. 
Lyman,  R.  L.,  "The  Washington  Junior  High  School, 

Rochester,  N.  Y."    School  Revtew,  March,  1920,  pp. 

178-204. 
Simmonds,  F.  W.,  "Six-Year  High  School  in  Lewiston. 

Idaho."    Educational  Administration  and  Supervi- 
sion, May,  1921,  pp.  291-97. 

Miscellaneous 

Albert,  Brother,  "Content  of  the  Elementary  School 
Curriculum."  Proceedings  Catholic  Educational 
Association,  12th  Ann.  Meeting,  St.  Paul,  1915,  pp. 
233-43. 

Baldwin,  Brother,  "Causes  Which  Demand  Vocational 
Training  in  the  United  States."  Proceedings 
Catholic  Educational  Association,  14th  Ann.  Meet- 
ing, Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  1917,  pp.  376-86. 

Baldwin,  B.  T.,  "Physical  Growth  and  School  Progress." 
U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1914,  No.  10. 

Bunker,  F.  F.,  "Reorganization  of  the  Public  School 
System."  U.  S.  Bureau  of  Education,  Bulletin,  1916, 
No.  8.    Bibliography. 

Burns,  J.  A.,  "The  Condition  of  Catholic  Secondary 
Education  in  the  United  States."  Proceedings 
Catholic  Educational  Association,  12th  Ann.  Meeting, 
St.  Paul,  1915,  pp.  377-440. 

Crathorne,  A.  R.,  "Change  of  Mind  Between  High  School 
and  College  as  to  Life  Work."    Educational  Admin- 


106  The  Junior  High  School 

istration  and  supervision,  May-June,  1920,  pp.  274-84. 

Ei,  J.  C,  "Difficulties  Encountered  by  Religious  Super- 
iors in  the  Professional  Training  of  Their  Teachers/' 
Proceedings  Catholic  Educational  Association,  10th, 
Ann.  Meeting,  1913,  pp.  362-379. 

Howard,  F.  W.,  "The  Problem  of  the  Curriculum." 
Proceedings  Catholic  Educational  Association,  10th 
Ann.  Meeting,  New  Orleans,  1913,  pp.  132-47. 

Horsa,  Bede,  "The  Need  of  Male  Teachers  in  Our  Parish 
Schools."  Proceedings  Catholic  Educational  Associ- 
ation, 10th  Ann.  Meeting,  New  Orleans,  1913,  pp. 
281-89. 

Meredith,  A.  B.,  "Principles  Which  are  to  be  Used  as 
Guides  in  Classifying  and  Promoting  Children." 
High  School  Quarterly,  April,  1919,  pp.  136-41. 

McGolrick,  Edward  J.,  "Our  School  Buildings  and  Their 
Maintenance,"  Proceedings  Catholic  Educational 
Association,  17th  Ann.  Meeting,  New  York,  1920, 
pp.  202-10. 

McKenna,  J.  D.  A.,  "Child  Study."  Proceedings  Catholic 
Educational  Association,  10th  Ann.  Meeting,  New 
Orleans,  1913,  pp.  403-12. 

McLaughlin,  Myles.  "Factors  in  P re-vocational  Train- 
ing." Proceedings  Catholic  Educational  Associa- 
tion, 12th  Ann.  Meeting,  St.  Paul,  1915,  ryj).  312-320. 

Ryan,  John  J.  "Vocational  Education  in  a  Democratic 
Society."    Catholic  World,  August,  1919,  pp.  613-21. 

Ryan,  John  J.,  "The  Priest's  Adaptability  for  School 
Work."  Proceedings  Catholic  Educational  Associ- 
ation, 10th  Ann.  Meeting,  New  Orleans,  1913,  pp. 
297-304. 

Shields,  Thos.  E.,  "Some  Relations  Behoeen  the  Catholic 
School  System  and  the  Public  School  System" 
Proceedings  Catholic  Educational  Association,  13th 
Ann.  Meeting,  Baltimore,  1916,  pp.  51-62. 


> 


Its  Feasibility  in  the  Catholic  Educational  System      107 

Snedden,  D.,  "Fundamental  Distinctions  Between  Liberal 
and  Vocational  Education."  Proceedings  National 
Educational  Association,  1914,  pp.  150-61.  Bagley's 
views  are  given  on  pages  161-70. 

Thompson,  F.  W.,  "Equalizing  Educational  Oppor- 
tunity." Educational  Administration  and  Super- 
vision, Sept.,  1915,  pp.  453-64. 

U.  S.  Commissioner  of  Education,  "Classification  and 
Promotion  of  Pupils."  Annual  Report,  1898-99,  Vol. 
I.,  pp.  302-56. 


VITA 

Joseph  Earl  Hamill  was  born  in  Indianapolis,  Indi- 
ana, on  January  3,  1886.  He  received  his  elementary 
education  from  the  Brothers  of  the  Sacred  Heart  in  St. 
Patrick's  school  in  his  native  city.  In  September,  1900, 
he  entered  St.  Meinrad's  preparatory  seminary  at  St. 
Meinrad,  Indiana.  After  completing  the  classical  course 
he  was  admitted  into  the  major  seminary,  where  he 
studied  his  Philosophy  and  Theology.  On  June  5,  1909, 
he  was  ordained  to  the  priesthood.  Having  served  as 
assistant  priest  for  three  years  he  was  placed  in  charge 
of  a  parish.  In  the  year  1919,  he  entered  the  Catholic 
University  of  America.  The  principal  courses  pursued 
in  his  graduate  work  were  in  education.  He  followed  the 
courses  in  School  Administration  and  Supervision  and  in 
the  History  of  Education  under  Very  Reverend  Doctor 
McCormick;  the  course  in  the  Philosophy  of  Education 
under  the  late  Very  Reverend  Doctor  Shields ;  the  course 
in  the  Psychology  of  Education  under  Father  McVay; 
and  the  course  in  General  Methods  under  Reverend 
Doctor  Johnson.  The  courses  of  Rt.  Reverend  Monsignor 
Pace  in  the  Philosophy  of  the  Mind  and  in  Genetic 
Psychology  were  taken  as  first  minor  and  the  course  of 
Reverend  Doctor  Kerby  in  General  Sociology  was  taken 
'as  second  minor.  In  addition  he  attended  the  lectures 
of  Doctor  Parker  in  Biology;  those  of  Reverend  Doctor 
Moore  in  General  Psychology;  and  thoso  of  Doctor  Brock- 
bank  in  Experimental  Educational  Psychology. 


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